Intermediate module
IPOs, corporate actions & market plumbing
How shares are born, why your share count sometimes changes overnight, and the quiet machinery — indices, circuits, record dates — that decides what actually lands in your demat. The plumbing nobody explains until it costs you.
1The primary market
Where shares are created and sold for the first time — how an IPO is built, how you apply for one, and what really happens on listing day.
- 1
How an IPO actually works
An IPO is not a lottery and not a guaranteed jackpot. It's a company selling shares to the public for the first time, with a whole machine of bankers, regulators and pricing behind it. Understand the machine and the hype stops fooling you.
13 min read
- 2
Applying for an IPO: ASBA, UPI and allotment
The mechanics of actually putting in an IPO bid — why your money is blocked instead of debited, how the UPI mandate works, what a lot is, and why oversubscription turns allotment into a lottery you can't game.
12 min read
- 3
Listing day: grey market, pop and reality
The day an IPO starts trading is theatre — grey market premiums, listing pops, special price bands. Learn what the GMP really is, why a pop isn't profit you earned, and how to think about the day a share meets the open market.
12 min read
2Corporate actions in depth
Dividends, bonuses, splits, rights and buybacks — the events that change your holding or hand you cash. What genuinely creates value, what just reshuffles it, and the date mechanics that decide whether you're even eligible.
- 4
Dividends, record dates and ex-dates
A dividend is real cash from profits — but whether it lands in your account depends on owning the share on the right day, and the date mechanics confuse almost everyone. Master record date, ex-date and why the price drops when a dividend is paid.
13 min read
- 5
Bonus, splits and rights issues — what really changes
Three corporate actions that make your share count change — but only one of them asks for your money, and none of them magically makes you richer. Separate the accounting reshuffles from the events that actually demand a decision.
13 min read
- 6
Buybacks: how companies return cash
A buyback is a company buying back its own shares — the mirror image of issuing them. Done well it concentrates ownership for those who stay; done badly it props up a price or enriches insiders. Learn the two routes, the tax shift, and what to actually look for.
12 min read
3Market structure
The invisible scaffolding of the market — how the indices everyone quotes are actually built and reshuffled, and the circuit breakers and price bands that stop a panic from feeding on itself.
- 7
How indices are built and rebalanced
The Nifty and Sensex aren't 'the market' — they're curated, rules-based baskets that get reshuffled on a schedule. Understand how stocks get in and out, why free-float weighting matters, and how index funds quietly follow the rules.
13 min read
- 8
Circuit limits, halts and price bands
The market has emergency brakes. Stock-level price bands, index-level circuit breakers and trading halts exist to stop panics and runaway moves from feeding on themselves — and to understand why a stock can 'lock' so you can't trade it at all.
12 min read