Beginner module
How the market actually works
Strip away the ticker noise and the jargon. What you own when you own a share, where it trades, who you're trading against, and how a click becomes ownership.
1What a share really is
Before charts or tickers: what you literally own, how an owner differs from a lender, and how to read the numbers on your screen.
- 1
What you actually own when you buy a share
A share is not a lottery ticket on a price. It's a slice of a real business — and that one idea changes how you read everything that follows.
12 min read
- 2
Owners vs lenders: equity, debt and who gets paid first
A company can raise money two ways — by selling ownership or by borrowing. Which one you hold decides what you're promised, what you risk, and where you stand in the queue.
13 min read
- 3
Reading a stock quote: the numbers on your screen
LTP, bid and ask, volume, the day and 52-week range, VWAP. Decode the cluster of numbers around a stock's price so the screen tells you something useful instead of just blinking.
13 min read
2How trading actually works
Where shares change hands, the orders you use to do it, and the plumbing that turns a click into legally-recorded ownership.
- 4
Where shares trade — and why there's a price at all
NSE, BSE, the order book, bid and ask. How a continuous auction sets the price you see, and why it can change with no news at all.
12 min read
- 5
Order types: market, limit, stop-loss and GTT
The handful of order types your broker offers are the controls in your hands. Each one trades off price, speed and certainty — and using the wrong one is one of the most common ways beginners lose money needlessly.
13 min read
- 6
From a click to ownership — settlement, demat & T+1
What happens in the plumbing after you hit 'buy': how shares actually land in your account, and why 'settlement' is more than a technicality.
11 min read
3The market around the share
Zoom out from a single trade: who's on the other side, where shares are born, and what the headline indices actually measure.
- 7
Who's on the other side of your trade
Every time you buy, someone sold. Understanding who they are — and why — is the difference between confidence and self-delusion.
11 min read
- 8
IPOs and the primary market: where shares are born
Every share you trade was created once, in the primary market, when a company first sold ownership to the public. Understanding how an IPO works — and who it really serves — changes how you treat the hype.
13 min read
- 9
What the Nifty and Sensex actually measure
The numbers the news shouts every evening aren't 'the market' itself — they're carefully constructed yardsticks. Knowing how an index is built tells you exactly what it does, and doesn't, say about your money.
13 min read