Foundations, module 1: Money, risk and return
Saving, investing and inflation
The difference between saving and investing, what inflation is and how India measures it, and why money kept idle slowly loses what it can buy.
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Understand the market. Think for yourself.
Plain-English lessons on how the stock market really works, from your first share to reading a company's accounts and spotting a scam. Learn in order, test yourself, and earn XP as you go.
227 lessons, 1572 test questions, 10 calculators and 390 glossary terms so far.
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Play today's challengeNine learning paths
Start with the foundations, then follow the route at your own pace.
- Stock market foundationsStart from zero. Learn what shares are, how exchanges and brokers work, how buying and selling happens, and the risks involved.
- Financial literacy and accountingRead a company's numbers with confidence. Revenue, profit, cash flow, assets and liabilities, and how the three financial statements fit together.
- Fundamental analysisJudge a business on its merits. Business models, growth, profitability, debt, valuation ratios, intrinsic value and the red flags of poor governance.
- Technical analysisRead price charts honestly. Candlesticks, trends, support and resistance, common indicators, backtesting, and the real limits of chart-based methods.
- Investing and portfolio managementBuild and run a portfolio you can stick with. Compounding, diversification, asset allocation, funds, rebalancing and the behaviour that undoes good plans.
- Macroeconomics and financial marketsHow the wider economy moves markets. Inflation, interest rates, RBI policy, GDP, government borrowing, currencies, commodities and bonds.
- Practical stock researchResearch a company from scratch. Products and customers, statements, competitors, management, exchange filings, red flags and a written research report.
- Derivatives and advanced market conceptsFutures, options, leverage, short selling, options Greeks and volatility, with a clear focus on how quickly losses can grow.
- Scams, myths and investor protectionHow investment scams work, how to check a claim against official sources, and what to do if you think you have been targeted.
Lessons
Every published lesson, in the order we suggest reading them.
Foundations, module 1: Money, risk and return
Risk, return, liquidity and time horizon
Why investments that can earn more also carry more risk, what liquidity is worth, and how the time until you need your money decides which risks matter.
Foundations, module 1: Money, risk and return
Percentages, percentage change and percentage points
How to calculate a percentage change, why a 50% fall needs a 100% rise to recover, and the difference between percent and percentage points.
Foundations, module 1: Money, risk and return
Compounding and CAGR
How compounding makes money grow faster over time, how to calculate a compound annual growth rate (CAGR), and why an average return can mislead.
Foundations, module 1: Money, risk and return
Nominal and real returns
How to turn a nominal return into a real return after inflation, why subtracting inflation is only an approximation, and why real returns are what count.
Foundations, module 2: Shares and why they exist
What is the stock market?
The stock market explained from zero. What it is, why it exists, who takes part, and what it means to own part of a company through shares.
Foundations, module 2: Shares and why they exist
Why companies issue shares
Why a company would sell part of itself instead of only taking a loan, what it gains and gives up, and what that means for people who buy its shares.
Foundations, module 2: Shares and why they exist
What is a share?
What a share really is, what owning one entitles you to, how your percentage of a company is worked out, and what limited liability protects you from.
Foundations, module 2: Shares and why they exist
Dividends, capital gains and losses
The two ways shares make money, dividends and price gains, how to calculate your total return, and how and why shareholders lose money.
Foundations, module 2: Shares and why they exist
Dividends, splits, bonus shares and other corporate actions
What record dates and ex-dates mean, why a share's price drops by about the dividend, and what stock splits, bonus issues, rights issues and buybacks change for you.
Foundations, module 3: Exchanges, regulators and your accounts
How stock exchanges work
What a stock exchange like NSE or BSE actually does, how buy and sell orders are matched, when the market is open, and how a trade settles in India.
Foundations, module 3: Exchanges, regulators and your accounts
SEBI, brokers and demat accounts
Who regulates India's stock market, what your broker does, where your shares are actually kept, and the three accounts you need to buy shares.
Foundations, module 3: Exchanges, regulators and your accounts
Primary and secondary markets
The difference between the primary market, where companies sell new shares, and the secondary market, where investors trade existing shares with each other.
Foundations, module 3: Exchanges, regulators and your accounts
IPO basics
How an initial public offering works in India, how individual investors apply through ASBA and UPI, how shares are allotted, and the risks of buying new listings.
Foundations, module 3: Exchanges, regulators and your accounts
Nifty 50 and Sensex
What the Nifty 50 and Sensex measure, why bigger companies count for more, how to read index points and percentages, and what an index move does not tell you.
Foundations, module 4: How buying and selling works
Investing compared with trading
How investing and trading differ in purpose, time horizon, method, costs and risk, and what SEBI's own studies show about how most individual traders fare.
Foundations, module 4: How buying and selling works
Market orders and limit orders
The two basic order types in every trading app, how each is executed against the order book, partial fills, and how to choose between them.
Foundations, module 4: How buying and selling works
Stop-loss and stop-limit orders
How a stop-loss order waits for a trigger price, how stop-loss limit and stop-loss market orders differ, and why a stop cannot guarantee your exit price.
Foundations, module 4: How buying and selling works
Bid, ask, spread and liquidity
What the bid and ask prices on a stock quote mean, how to calculate the spread, and why liquidity decides how easily and cheaply you can buy or sell.
Foundations, module 4: How buying and selling works
Trading costs and taxes on shares
The charges you pay each time you buy or sell shares, who sets each one, why frequent trading is expensive, and how gains and dividends are taxed.
Foundations, module 4: How buying and selling works
Market capitalisation
How to calculate market capitalisation, why it says more than the share price, what large, mid and small cap mean, and what market cap cannot tell you.
Foundations, module 4: How buying and selling works
Reading a stock quote
What each number on a share's quote screen means, from the last traded price and day range to volume, VWAP, the 52-week range, price band and market depth.
Foundations, module 5: Ups, downs and risk
Bull markets, bear markets, corrections and crashes
What bull and bear markets, corrections and crashes are, how to measure a fall from a peak, and why recovering from a loss takes a bigger gain than the loss itself.
Foundations, module 5: Ups, downs and risk
Circuit breakers and price bands
How daily price bands limit a share's moves, how market-wide circuit breakers halt trading after big index falls, and what they can and cannot protect you from.
Foundations, module 5: Ups, downs and risk
The risks of investing in shares
The main risks of owning shares, from one company failing to market-wide falls, illiquidity and borrowed money, and the habits that keep them in check.
Foundations, module 6: Probability and statistics for investors
Probability and expected value
How to think about probability, calculate an expected value, judge a decision separately from its outcome, and why a small chance of a large loss matters so much.
Foundations, module 6: Probability and statistics for investors
Averages, spread and volatility
The mean and the median, how standard deviation measures spread, what volatility means for an investment, and why swings reduce compound returns.
Foundations, module 6: Probability and statistics for investors
Correlation and causation
What a correlation coefficient measures, why moving together does not mean one thing causes another, and why correlations change in a crisis.
Foundations, module 6: Probability and statistics for investors
Misleading numbers and charts
How cherry-picked dates, truncated chart axes, averages, base rates, survivorship and relative risk are used to make numbers say more than they should.
Accounting basics, module 1: Profit, cash and what a business owns
Revenue, expenses and profit
The difference between revenue, expenses and profit, the main levels of profit from gross to net, and why a company with huge revenue can still lose money.
Accounting basics, module 1: Profit, cash and what a business owns
Profit compared with cash flow
Why the profit a company reports is not the same as the cash it collects, how credit sales, stock and equipment purchases cause the gap, and why it matters.
Accounting basics, module 1: Profit, cash and what a business owns
Assets, liabilities and equity
What a company owns, what it owes and what belongs to its shareholders, the accounting equation that ties them together, and how to read a simple balance sheet.
Accounting basics, module 2: How accounting records a business
Accrual accounting and cash accounting
When revenue and expenses are recorded under accrual accounting, what accrued expenses, prepaid expenses and deferred revenue are, and where judgement comes in.
Accounting basics, module 2: How accounting records a business
Depreciation, amortisation and capital expenditure
Why spending on long-lived assets is not an expense straight away, how straight-line depreciation and amortisation work, and why depreciation is a real cost.
Accounting basics, module 2: How accounting records a business
Working capital, inventory and receivables
What working capital is, how inventory, receivables and payables tie up or free cash, how to calculate the cash conversion cycle, and why growth can drain cash.
Accounting basics, module 2: How accounting records a business
Provisions, contingent liabilities and impairments
When a company must record an expected cost as a provision, when a possible one is only disclosed as a contingent liability, and how impairments write assets down.
Accounting basics, module 3: The three financial statements
The income statement
How to read a company's income statement, also called the statement of profit and loss, line by line from revenue down to net profit and earnings per share.
Accounting basics, module 3: The three financial statements
The balance sheet
How to read a company's balance sheet - what it owns, what it owes and what belongs to shareholders - with the main lines explained and the first checks to make.
Accounting basics, module 3: The three financial statements
The cash flow statement
How to read a cash flow statement, from operating, investing and financing cash flows to turning profit into operating cash flow and reading the patterns.
Accounting basics, module 3: The three financial statements
How the three statements connect
How profit flows into equity, how the cash flow statement explains the change in cash, and how single transactions move through all three financial statements.
Accounting basics, module 4: Profit levels, margins and earnings per share
Operating profit, EBITDA and net profit
The levels of profit from EBITDA to net profit attributable to shareholders, what each includes and leaves out, and which question each one answers.
Accounting basics, module 4: Profit levels, margins and earnings per share
Profit margins and what they reveal
How to calculate gross, EBITDA, operating and net margins, how to compare them over time and with similar companies, and what rising or falling margins can mean.
Accounting basics, module 4: Profit levels, margins and earnings per share
Earnings per share
How to calculate basic and diluted EPS, why the weighted average share count matters, and how buybacks, new shares, splits and bonuses change EPS.
Accounting basics, module 5: Reading a real annual report
How an Indian annual report is organised
What a listed company's annual report contains, where the standalone and consolidated statements, notes and auditor's report sit, and a sensible order to read them.
Accounting basics, module 5: Reading a real annual report
Notes to the financial statements
What the notes to the accounts contain, from accounting policies and segments to borrowings, related parties and contingent liabilities, and why they matter.
Accounting basics, module 5: Reading a real annual report
The auditor's report
What an audit does and does not assure, clean, qualified and adverse opinions and disclaimers, and what key audit matters and emphasis of matter mean.
Accounting basics, module 5: Reading a real annual report
Management discussion and analysis
What the management discussion and analysis section of an annual report must cover, how to separate facts from management's framing, and how to check its claims.
Accounting basics, module 5: Reading a real annual report
Indian accounting standards (Ind AS)
What accounting standards do, how Ind AS relates to international standards, why Indian companies do not all use the same rules, and how choices affect comparisons.
Fundamental analysis, module 1: Understanding the business
Understanding a company's business model
How to describe what a company sells, who pays, how it reaches customers and where its revenue comes from, and why recurring revenue matters.
Fundamental analysis, module 1: Understanding the business
Industry analysis and competitive positioning
How industry structure, barriers to entry, the power of customers and suppliers, and substitutes shape the profits every company in an industry can earn.
Fundamental analysis, module 1: Understanding the business
Competitive advantages and their limits
The main sources of competitive advantage, from pricing power and switching costs to network effects and low costs, how to test one, and why they fade.
Fundamental analysis, module 1: Understanding the business
Cyclical and capital-intensive businesses
Why profits in metals, cement, autos and similar industries swing with demand, how heavy investment affects returns, and how to judge them across a cycle.
Fundamental analysis, module 1: Understanding the business
Operating leverage
How fixed and variable costs make profits rise faster than revenue in good times and fall faster in bad ones, and how to estimate a company's operating leverage.
Fundamental analysis, module 2: Growth and quality of earnings
Revenue and earnings growth
How to measure a company's growth over sensible periods, why multi-year growth beats one good year, organic compared with acquired growth, and growth per share.
Fundamental analysis, module 2: Growth and quality of earnings
Quality of earnings
How to judge whether reported profit is reliable and repeatable, using cash conversion, one-off items, revenue recognition, capitalised costs and estimates.
Fundamental analysis, module 2: Growth and quality of earnings
Share dilution and employee stock options
How new share issues, preferential allotments, convertibles and employee stock options add to the share count, and how to measure the effect on each shareholder.
Fundamental analysis, module 3: Returns on capital
Return on equity (ROE)
How to calculate return on equity, how the DuPont breakdown splits it into margin, asset turnover and leverage, and why a high ROE can come from debt.
Fundamental analysis, module 3: Returns on capital
Return on capital employed (ROCE)
How to calculate ROCE from operating profit and capital employed, why it is less distorted by debt than ROE, and how to compare it with the cost of capital.
Fundamental analysis, module 3: Returns on capital
Return on assets
How return on assets and asset turnover show how well a company uses everything it owns, why ROA is central for banks, and why it varies so much between industries.
Fundamental analysis, module 3: Returns on capital
Returns on incremental capital
How to estimate the return a company earns on new investment, why growth creates value only when that return beats the cost of capital, and its limits.
Fundamental analysis, module 4: Debt, cash and financial strength
Debt-to-equity and net debt
How to measure how much a company owes using gross and net debt, debt-to-equity and net debt to EBITDA, including leases, and why safe levels differ by industry.
Fundamental analysis, module 4: Debt, cash and financial strength
Interest coverage
How to measure whether a company's profits and cash flows cover its interest bill, why coverage falls fast when profits drop, and what refinancing risk is.
Fundamental analysis, module 4: Debt, cash and financial strength
Free cash flow and cash conversion
How to calculate free cash flow from the cash flow statement, the difference between free cash flow to the firm and to equity, and why one year's figure can mislead.
Fundamental analysis, module 4: Debt, cash and financial strength
Working capital efficiency
How to track inventory, receivable and payable days and the cash conversion cycle over time, and the warning signs, such as receivables growing faster than sales.
Fundamental analysis, module 4: Debt, cash and financial strength
Dividend payout and coverage
How to judge whether a dividend is sustainable using payout against profit and free cash flow, why buybacks are an alternative, and why a high yield can warn.
Fundamental analysis, module 5: Valuation ratios
The P/E ratio
How to calculate the P/E ratio and earnings yield, trailing compared with forward P/E, what a P/E implies about growth, and why a low P/E is not always cheap.
Fundamental analysis, module 5: Valuation ratios
The P/B ratio
How to calculate price-to-book, how P/B links to return on equity and P/E, why it suits banks better than asset-light firms, and why below book is not always cheap.
Fundamental analysis, module 5: Valuation ratios
The PEG ratio
How the PEG ratio divides P/E by expected growth, the assumptions hidden in that shortcut, and why fragile growth estimates make a PEG below 1 an unreliable signal.
Fundamental analysis, module 5: Valuation ratios
Enterprise value
How enterprise value adds debt and subtracts cash from market capitalisation, the adjustments for minorities and investments, and why it compares companies fairly.
Fundamental analysis, module 5: Valuation ratios
EV/EBITDA
How to calculate EV/EBITDA, why it compares companies with different debt and depreciation, the costs EBITDA leaves out, and the businesses it does not suit.
Fundamental analysis, module 5: Valuation ratios
Earnings, dividend and free cash flow yields
How earnings, dividend and free cash flow yields express valuation as a percentage return, how to compare them with bond yields, and why they are not like interest.
Fundamental analysis, module 5: Valuation ratios
Comparing valuations with history and peers
How to compare a company's valuation with its own past range and with fair peers, adjusting for growth, returns and risk before calling it cheap.
Fundamental analysis, module 5: Valuation ratios
Why sectors are valued differently
Why growth, returns on capital, cyclicality, debt and regulation make some sectors trade at higher multiples than others, and which measures suit which sectors.
Fundamental analysis, module 5: Valuation ratios
When valuation ratios mislead
How losses, cyclical peaks, one-off profits, accounting differences and value traps make ratios mislead, and why a high multiple can still be justified.
Fundamental analysis, module 6: Intrinsic value and discounted cash flow
What intrinsic value means
The difference between a share's price and its intrinsic value, why intrinsic value is an estimate rather than a fact, and the main approaches used to estimate it.
Fundamental analysis, module 6: Intrinsic value and discounted cash flow
Present value and discounting
Why a rupee today is worth more than a rupee later, how to calculate present and future value, and how the discount rate changes the value of a series of cash flows.
Fundamental analysis, module 6: Intrinsic value and discounted cash flow
Discount rates and the cost of equity
What the cost of equity is, how the risk-free rate, equity risk premium and CAPM are used to estimate it, and why reasonable people use different rates.
Fundamental analysis, module 6: Intrinsic value and discounted cash flow
Weighted average cost of capital (WACC)
How to calculate WACC from the cost of equity and the after-tax cost of debt, when to use it instead of the cost of equity, and why more debt does not always cut it.
Fundamental analysis, module 6: Intrinsic value and discounted cash flow
Discounted cash flow valuation
How to build a simple DCF valuation: forecast free cash flow, discount it, add a terminal value, and move from enterprise value to value per share.
Fundamental analysis, module 6: Intrinsic value and discounted cash flow
Terminal value
How the perpetuity growth and exit multiple methods estimate terminal value, why it is often most of a DCF, and the sensible limits on long-run growth.
Fundamental analysis, module 6: Intrinsic value and discounted cash flow
Sensitivity and scenario analysis
How sensitivity tables and bear, base and bull scenarios show the effect of key assumptions on a valuation, and why value is best shown as a range.
Fundamental analysis, module 6: Intrinsic value and discounted cash flow
Reverse DCF
How to work backwards from a share price to the growth it implies, and how to judge whether those expectations are reasonable, without forecasting precisely.
Fundamental analysis, module 6: Intrinsic value and discounted cash flow
Comparable-company valuation
How relative valuation uses peer multiples to value a company, how to select and clean comparables, and how to combine relative and absolute methods sensibly.
Fundamental analysis, module 6: Intrinsic value and discounted cash flow
Margin of safety
What a margin of safety is, how to size it to the uncertainty of a valuation, and why buying with room for error reduces but does not remove the risk of being wrong.
Fundamental analysis, module 7: Governance, capital allocation and red flags
Management quality and corporate governance
How to judge a company's board, independent directors, audit committee, executive pay and disclosures, and how to assess management from its track record.
Fundamental analysis, module 7: Governance, capital allocation and red flags
Capital allocation
The choices management has for surplus cash, reinvestment, acquisitions, debt repayment, dividends and buybacks, and how to judge them against returns on capital.
Fundamental analysis, module 7: Governance, capital allocation and red flags
Related-party transactions
What related-party transactions are, where they are disclosed, how they are approved, and the patterns that suggest value is leaking from a company to insiders.
Fundamental analysis, module 7: Governance, capital allocation and red flags
Promoter pledging
What it means when promoters pledge their shares as security for loans, where pledges are disclosed, and how forced selling by lenders can hit the share price.
Fundamental analysis, module 7: Governance, capital allocation and red flags
Minority shareholders, holding companies and conglomerates
Why holding companies trade below the value of their stakes, how group structures work, and how controlling shareholders' decisions can disadvantage minorities.
Fundamental analysis, module 7: Governance, capital allocation and red flags
Financial red flags
The warning signs in financial statements, from profit without cash and rising receivables to auditor resignations and odd other income, and what to do about them.
Fundamental analysis, module 7: Governance, capital allocation and red flags
Accounting manipulation and fraud indicators
Common ways accounts are manipulated, such as fictitious revenue, capitalising expenses and hiding debt, and how forensic checks look for them in public information.
Fundamental analysis, module 8: Analysing different kinds of business
Analysing banks and lenders
The key measures for banks and other lenders, net interest margin, asset quality, provisions, capital adequacy and deposits, and why banks are valued on P/B and ROA.
Fundamental analysis, module 8: Analysing different kinds of business
Analysing insurance companies
How insurers make money from underwriting and investment, the claims, expense and combined ratios, embedded value and new business for life insurers, and solvency.
Fundamental analysis, module 8: Analysing different kinds of business
Asset-light businesses
Why software, services and brand-led businesses with low capital needs can earn very high returns on capital, how to analyse them, and the risks they carry.
Fundamental analysis, module 8: Analysing different kinds of business
Commodity businesses
How price-taking producers in metals, oil, cement and chemicals make money, why cost position matters most, and how to value them on normal earnings across a cycle.
Fundamental analysis, module 8: Analysing different kinds of business
Real estate and infrastructure companies
Why reported profit misleads for property developers, how pre-sales and land banks show progress, and how concessions and debt shape infrastructure companies.
Technical analysis, module 1: Reading price charts
Understanding price charts
What a price chart records and what it leaves out, the difference between line, bar and candlestick charts, and when to use a linear or a logarithmic price scale.
Technical analysis, module 1: Reading price charts
Open, high, low and close
How the open, high, low and close of a trading session are formed, how Indian exchanges set the official closing price, and what a bar's range says about a session.
Technical analysis, module 1: Reading price charts
Candlesticks and chart timeframes
How to read the body and wicks of a candlestick, what bullish and bearish candles show, and how one price history looks on daily, weekly and intraday charts.
Technical analysis, module 1: Reading price charts
Trading volume and liquidity on charts
How to read volume bars, traded value and delivery volume, compare volume with its average, and why thin volume makes chart signals unreliable.
Technical analysis, module 1: Reading price charts
Adjusted and unadjusted prices
How splits, bonus issues and dividends create false jumps in raw price data, how adjusted prices remove them, and why it matters for indicators and backtests.
Technical analysis, module 2: Trends, support and resistance
Trends and market structure
How to define uptrends, downtrends and trading ranges from swing highs and lows, why trends depend on the timeframe, and why a long trend need not continue.
Technical analysis, module 2: Trends, support and resistance
Support and resistance
What support and resistance are, why they are zones rather than exact lines, why round numbers matter, and how levels change role once they are broken.
Technical analysis, module 2: Trends, support and resistance
Trendlines and channels
How to draw trendlines and channels by a consistent rule, why they are subjective, and why linear and log scales give different lines from the same prices.
Technical analysis, module 2: Trends, support and resistance
Breakouts, pullbacks and retests
What counts as a breakout or breakdown, how pullbacks and retests work, the role of volume, and how to frame a breakout as a hypothesis with a clear failure point.
Technical analysis, module 2: Trends, support and resistance
Price gaps
Why gaps appear between trading sessions, common, breakaway and exhaustion gaps, the risk gaps create for stop-loss orders, and the myth that every gap is filled.
Technical analysis, module 2: Trends, support and resistance
False breakouts and misleading signals
How often breakouts fail, why stop runs and thin liquidity cause false signals, and how hindsight removes failed signals from the charts people share.
Technical analysis, module 3: Indicators
Moving averages
How to calculate simple and exponential moving averages, why every moving average lags, how crossovers work, and why their signals whipsaw in sideways markets.
Technical analysis, module 3: Indicators
Volume-weighted average price (VWAP)
How to calculate VWAP across a session, why institutions use it to judge execution, why it resets each day, and why buying below VWAP is not always a good price.
Technical analysis, module 3: Indicators
The relative strength index (RSI)
How to calculate RSI from average gains and losses, what overbought and oversold readings mean, and why RSI can stay extreme throughout a strong trend.
Technical analysis, module 3: Indicators
MACD
How the MACD line, signal line and histogram are built from exponential moving averages, what each measures, and why all three lag rather than give early signals.
Technical analysis, module 3: Indicators
Bollinger Bands
How Bollinger Bands place lines two standard deviations either side of a moving average, how band width measures volatility, and why touching a band is not a signal.
Technical analysis, module 3: Indicators
Average true range (ATR)
How true range and ATR measure a share's typical movement, how ATR is used to compare volatility and set stop distances, and what it does not tell you.
Technical analysis, module 3: Indicators
The stochastic oscillator
How the stochastic oscillator shows where the close sits in a recent range, how %K and %D are calculated, and how it behaves in trends and ranges.
Technical analysis, module 3: Indicators
On-balance volume
How on-balance volume adds and subtracts each session's volume, what OBV divergences mean, and why ignoring the size of price moves makes it a weak signal.
Technical analysis, module 4: Chart patterns and candlestick formations
Candlestick formations
What doji, hammer, engulfing and star formations describe about a session, why their names promise more than they deliver, and why context and testing matter more.
Technical analysis, module 4: Chart patterns and candlestick formations
Reversal patterns
How double tops, double bottoms and head and shoulders patterns are defined objectively, how measured-move targets are calculated, and how often these patterns fail.
Technical analysis, module 4: Chart patterns and candlestick formations
Continuation patterns
How triangles, flags, pennants and rectangles are defined, why one shape is called a reversal on one chart and a continuation on another, and why targets mislead.
Technical analysis, module 4: Chart patterns and candlestick formations
Volume confirmation and its limits
How traders use volume to judge breakouts and patterns, how block deals, index changes and expiries distort volume, and what the evidence on volume suggests.
Technical analysis, module 5: A trading process and risk control
Building a repeatable chart-analysis process
How to write a chart-analysis checklist, separate observations from testable hypotheses, keep a journal, and avoid explaining every move after it has happened.
Technical analysis, module 5: A trading process and risk control
Entry and exit planning
How to define an entry, a profit target and an invalidation point before a hypothetical trade, how time-based exits work, and why the exit plan matters most.
Technical analysis, module 5: A trading process and risk control
Placing stop-losses
How structure-based and volatility-based stop-losses are placed, why stops that are too tight or too wide both fail, and how gaps limit what any stop can do.
Technical analysis, module 5: A trading process and risk control
Risk/reward and position size per trade
How to set risk per trade as a share of capital, calculate how many shares to buy from the entry and stop, work out risk/reward ratios, and include trading costs.
Technical analysis, module 5: A trading process and risk control
Expectancy, losing streaks and risk of ruin
How expectancy combines win rate and the size of wins and losses, how long losing streaks can be by chance, and how risk per trade drives the chance of ruin.
Technical analysis, module 6: Backtesting and the limits of technical analysis
Backtesting
How to turn chart rules into a testable system, measure the results honestly, and include brokerage, taxes, spreads and slippage, so a backtest is a fair test.
Technical analysis, module 6: Backtesting and the limits of technical analysis
Survivorship, look-ahead and other backtesting biases
How survivorship bias, look-ahead bias, data errors, unrealistic fills and ignored costs each inflate backtest results, with examples of how to spot and avoid them.
Technical analysis, module 6: Backtesting and the limits of technical analysis
Overfitting, sample size and out-of-sample testing
How tuning a strategy's rules fits random noise, why small samples mislead, how out-of-sample and walk-forward tests work, and the signs of a robust result.
Technical analysis, module 6: Backtesting and the limits of technical analysis
The limitations of technical analysis
What market efficiency and published evidence say about technical rules, why self-fulfilling signals are limited, and why most short-term traders lose after costs.
Investing, module 1: Goals, time horizons and speculation
Investing compared with speculation
How investing differs from speculation in where returns come from and how long you hold, why buying shares is not always investing, and why speculation is not fraud.
Investing, module 1: Goals, time horizons and speculation
Investment goals and time horizons
How to turn vague wishes into goals with amounts and dates, why an emergency fund comes first, and how to match investments to when the money will be needed.
Investing, module 1: Goals, time horizons and speculation
Risk tolerance and risk capacity
The difference between the risk you feel comfortable with and the loss you can actually afford, why capacity sets the upper limit, and how both shape a portfolio.
Investing, module 2: Building a portfolio
Diversification
How spreading money across holdings cuts company-specific risk but not market risk, why correlation decides how much it helps, and what over-diversification means.
Investing, module 2: Building a portfolio
Equity and fixed income
How bonds, deposits and debt funds differ from shares, what credit and interest-rate risk are, why bond prices fall when rates rise, and fixed income's role.
Investing, module 2: Building a portfolio
Asset allocation
How to choose the split between equity, fixed income and cash, why allocation drives most of a portfolio's swings, and how to allocate by goal and time horizon.
Investing, module 2: Building a portfolio
Beta and market risk
What beta measures relative to an index, how it is estimated, how it describes a portfolio's market risk, and why it is unstable and not the same as total risk.
Investing, module 2: Building a portfolio
Position sizing and concentration
How equal-weight and conviction-weight portfolios differ, why maximum position limits matter, how winners grow into concentration, and what one large loss costs.
Investing, module 3: Mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, REITs and InvITs
Mutual fund fundamentals
How mutual funds pool money, what NAV and units are, how fund categories work, the difference between direct and regular plans, and how SIPs and exit loads work.
Investing, module 3: Mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, REITs and InvITs
Index funds and ETFs
How index funds and ETFs track an index, how ETFs trade on the exchange, why their price can differ from NAV, and why funds tracking one index return different sums.
Investing, module 3: Mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, REITs and InvITs
Expense ratios and tracking error
What a fund's expense ratio covers, how small yearly costs compound over decades, and the difference between tracking difference and tracking error.
Investing, module 3: Mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, REITs and InvITs
Active and passive funds
What active fund managers try to do, the evidence on how many beat their benchmark after costs, survivorship in fund data, and how to choose between the two.
Investing, module 3: Mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, REITs and InvITs
REITs and InvITs
How real estate and infrastructure investment trusts earn and distribute income, how their units trade, and the interest-rate, occupancy and concentration risks.
Investing, module 4: Running a portfolio over time
Volatility and maximum drawdown
How to measure a portfolio's volatility and maximum drawdown, how long recoveries can take, and why drawdowns are the risk investors actually feel.
Investing, module 4: Running a portfolio over time
Sequence of returns
Why the order of good and bad years matters when money is added or withdrawn, with worked examples for savers and retirees.
Investing, module 4: Running a portfolio over time
Portfolio rebalancing
Why portfolios drift from their target mix, how calendar and threshold rebalancing work, how to rebalance with new money, and the tax and cost trade-offs involved.
Investing, module 4: Running a portfolio over time
Benchmarks and measuring performance
How to choose a fair benchmark, the difference between time-weighted and money-weighted returns (XIRR), risk-adjusted returns, and why one year proves nothing.
Investing, module 4: Running a portfolio over time
Writing an investment policy statement
How to write down your goals, allocation, rebalancing rules, allowed investments and review routine, as a guard against impulsive decisions.
Investing, module 4: Running a portfolio over time
Tax on shares, funds and other investments
How tax treats income and gains from shares, funds, bonds and deposits, why holding period and category matter, and why to check the rules each year.
Investing, module 5: Behaviour, biases and decisions
Loss aversion, confirmation bias and overconfidence
How three common biases lead investors to hold losers, sell winners, ignore contrary evidence and trade too often, and the habits that reduce their effect.
Investing, module 5: Behaviour, biases and decisions
Herd behaviour and recency bias
Why investors follow the crowd, fear missing out and expect recent returns to continue, and how these habits feed bubbles, panics and poor timing.
Investing, module 5: Behaviour, biases and decisions
Emotional decision-making
How fear and greed drive decisions in crashes and rallies, why checking prices too often makes it worse, and pre-commitment habits that limit the damage.
Investing, module 5: Behaviour, biases and decisions
Good decisions and good outcomes
Why good decisions can lose money and bad ones can win, how outcome bias misleads investors, and how a decision journal helps you learn honestly.
Investing, module 5: Behaviour, biases and decisions
Investment mistakes and lessons from history
Patterns that repeat in bubbles and crashes, such as leverage at the wrong time, concentration and chasing past returns, with dated examples from history.
Economy and markets, module 1: Inflation, interest rates and the RBI
Measuring inflation in India
How India's consumer and wholesale price indices are built, headline and core inflation, base effects, and why one number cannot describe your own cost of living.
Economy and markets, module 1: Inflation, interest rates and the RBI
Interest rates
Interest as the price of money, nominal and real rates, how banks set loan and deposit rates, and how rates change company profits and share valuations.
Economy and markets, module 1: Inflation, interest rates and the RBI
RBI monetary policy
How the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee targets inflation, what the repo rate and other tools do, how changes reach loans, and how markets react.
Economy and markets, module 2: Growth, cycles and government
GDP and economic growth
What GDP measures, real and nominal growth, why estimates are revised, and why fast economic growth does not guarantee strong stock market returns.
Economy and markets, module 2: Growth, cycles and government
Employment and consumption
How jobs and incomes drive household spending, how employment and consumption are measured in India, and why one month's data rarely marks a turn.
Economy and markets, module 2: Growth, cycles and government
Fiscal policy and government borrowing
How the Union Budget sets taxes and spending, what the fiscal deficit measures, how government borrowing affects bond yields, and how budget changes reach companies.
Economy and markets, module 2: Growth, cycles and government
Economic cycles and recessions
The phases of the economic cycle, how recessions are identified, leading and lagging indicators, and why stock markets usually move before the economy.
Economy and markets, module 3: Bonds, currencies, flows and commodities
Bonds and bond yields
Coupons, face value and yield to maturity, why bond prices fall when yields rise, duration as a measure of sensitivity, and government compared with corporate bonds.
Economy and markets, module 3: Bonds, currencies, flows and commodities
The yield curve
What the yield curve shows, why it usually slopes upward, what flat and inverted curves can signal about growth and policy, and the limits of those signals.
Economy and markets, module 3: Bonds, currencies, flows and commodities
Currency movements and the rupee
What moves exchange rates, how a weaker or stronger rupee affects exporters, importers and companies with foreign debt, and the RBI's role in the currency market.
Economy and markets, module 3: Bonds, currencies, flows and commodities
Foreign investment flows
Foreign portfolio and direct investment, how flows are reported, why they react to global rates and the dollar, and why daily flow figures are noisy.
Economy and markets, module 3: Bonds, currencies, flows and commodities
Crude oil and commodity prices
Why oil matters so much for India, how it feeds inflation, the trade balance and fuel-using industries, and how metals and gold reach company profits.
Economy and markets, module 4: Industries, earnings and the news
How economic conditions affect industries
Defensive and cyclical sectors, rate-sensitive industries, input-cost and currency exposure, and why the same news helps one industry and hurts another.
Economy and markets, module 4: Industries, earnings and the news
Expectations and surprises
Consensus forecasts, why prices move on the gap between expected and actual figures, buy the rumour and sell the news, and unreliable explanations.
Economy and markets, module 4: Industries, earnings and the news
Corporate earnings seasons
When Indian companies report results, how estimates and guidance are used, how to read results and earnings calls, and why a beat is not a good quarter.
Economy and markets, module 4: Industries, earnings and the news
Reading market and economic news critically
How to separate data from interpretation, check the source and base period, treat 'markets fell because' headlines as guesses, and know indicators' limits.
Stock research, module 1: A research process
How to research a company from scratch
The order of work in company research, from business and industry to statements, management, valuation and risks, and the primary sources to use.
Stock research, module 1: A research process
Products, customers and revenue drivers
How to split revenue growth into volume, price and mix, read segment reporting, check customer concentration, and find the numbers that drive results.
Stock research, module 1: A research process
Building a research checklist
A research checklist covering business, financials, governance, valuation and risks, how to separate deal-breakers, and the danger of box-ticking.
Stock research, module 2: Analysis in practice
Analysing financial statements in practice
Building a multi-year table from annual reports, common-size statements, explaining each major change, and reconciling profit with cash from filings.
Stock research, module 2: Analysis in practice
Comparing companies in the same sector
How to choose true peers, adjust for accounting differences and business mix, and present a fair comparison table of growth, returns, balance sheets and valuation.
Stock research, module 2: Analysis in practice
Judging competitive advantages in practice
How to test a claimed competitive advantage with evidence such as returns on capital, margins, market share and pricing power across a full cycle.
Stock research, module 2: Analysis in practice
Evaluating management and governance in practice
How to judge management from the public record: past promises against results, capital allocation, pay, related-party dealings and disclosure quality.
Stock research, module 2: Analysis in practice
Reading exchange filings
Results, shareholding patterns, pledge and insider disclosures and announcements on NSE and BSE, and how to tell routine filings from important ones.
Stock research, module 2: Analysis in practice
Identifying red flags in practice
Working through a red-flag checklist on real filings, ranking concerns by severity, and turning each into a specific question rather than a conclusion.
Stock research, module 2: Analysis in practice
Evaluating an IPO
How to read an IPO's red herring prospectus, check the use of proceeds and offer for sale, compare earlier investors' prices, and value it against peers.
Stock research, module 3: Valuation and uncertainty in practice
Choosing a valuation method
Matching valuation methods to businesses: DCF for steady cash generators, P/B for lenders, normalised earnings for cyclicals, and cross-checking results.
Stock research, module 3: Valuation and uncertainty in practice
Building scenarios from assumptions
Writing assumptions as testable statements, linking them to business drivers, building bear, base and bull values, and assigning rough probabilities honestly.
Stock research, module 3: Valuation and uncertainty in practice
Comparing competing explanations
How to generate alternative explanations for a company's results, find evidence that tells them apart, and avoid settling on the first story that fits.
Stock research, module 4: From research to a written thesis
Writing an investment thesis and research report
The structure of a short research note, separating facts from estimates and opinions, stating uncertainty and conflicts, and keeping the thesis brief.
Stock research, module 4: From research to a written thesis
What would prove you wrong
Writing kill criteria and milestones before investing, telling thesis-breaking news from noise, and using a pre-mortem to find weaknesses before they cost money.
Stock research, module 4: From research to a written thesis
Monitoring an investment thesis
What to track each quarter, how to update estimates when evidence changes, how to avoid anchoring on the purchase price, and when a full review is due.
Stock research, module 4: From research to a written thesis
Reviewing mistakes and updating conclusions
How to run a post-mortem on an investment, separate bad luck from bad analysis, recognise common error patterns, and keep a research log that improves future work.
Stock research, module 4: From research to a written thesis
Combining fundamental and technical analysis
The different questions fundamental and technical analysis answer, why combining them can add confirmation bias, and how to keep their roles separate.
Stock research, module 5: Case studies from history
Case study: an accounting fraud (Satyam, 2009)
The publicly documented facts of the Satyam Computer Services fraud, what an outside investor could have questioned beforehand, and the lessons for reading accounts.
Stock research, module 5: Case studies from history
Case study: a lender in crisis (Yes Bank, 2018-2020)
How rapid loan growth and under-reported bad loans led to the RBI's March 2020 moratorium and rescue of Yes Bank, and the warning signs in disclosures.
Stock research, module 5: Case studies from history
Case study: a valuation bubble (technology shares, 1999-2002)
How technology share valuations rose and collapsed around 2000, what prices implied about growth, and how long recovery took for the index and companies.
Stock research, module 5: Case studies from history
Case study: a debt-funded group in crisis (IL&FS, 2018)
How short-term borrowing for long-term projects and a complex group led to the IL&FS defaults of 2018, and what followed in India's credit markets.
Stock research, module 5: Case studies from history
Case study: how a durable business compounds (a hypothetical consumer company)
A labelled hypothetical consumer company reinvesting at high returns for twenty years, showing how compounding works and why the price paid still matters.
Derivatives, module 1: Futures and options basics
What derivatives are
What derivatives are, exchange-traded and over-the-counter contracts, hedging and speculation, and why derivative trading is zero-sum before costs.
Derivatives, module 1: Futures and options basics
Forwards and futures
Forward contracts, standardised futures, lot sizes and contract value, and the payoffs of long and short futures, with losses shown as clearly as gains.
Derivatives, module 1: Futures and options basics
Futures margin and mark-to-market
Initial margin, daily mark-to-market settlement, margin calls, and how a small price move becomes a large percentage gain or loss on the money put up as margin.
Derivatives, module 1: Futures and options basics
Call and put options
The right to buy or sell at a fixed price, what call and put buyers and sellers each risk, and why a loss limited to the premium is not low risk.
Derivatives, module 1: Futures and options basics
Strike prices, premiums and expiry
How option strikes and expiries are listed, what the premium pays for, how contract value is worked out, and why a cheap premium is not a cheap trade.
Derivatives, module 1: Futures and options basics
Moneyness, intrinsic value and time value
In-the-money, at-the-money and out-of-the-money options, splitting a premium into intrinsic and time value, and why time value shrinks towards expiry.
Derivatives, module 1: Futures and options basics
Option payoff diagrams and breakevens
Payoffs at expiry for long and short calls and puts, breakeven calculations and a simple spread, with the losing side shown as clearly as the winning side.
Derivatives, module 2: Leverage, short selling and risk
Leverage and margin
Exposure against capital, leverage ratios and margin trading, and the arithmetic of how leverage turns ordinary price moves into large losses.
Derivatives, module 2: Leverage, short selling and risk
Short selling
Selling first and buying later, intraday shorts, securities lending and short futures, why short sellers' losses are not capped, and how short squeezes happen.
Derivatives, module 2: Leverage, short selling and risk
Liquidity and slippage in derivatives
Why option spreads are wide in far strikes and expiries, how impact cost and slippage eat into results, and why liquidity vanishes when needed most.
Derivatives, module 2: Leverage, short selling and risk
The risks of buying and selling options
Small frequent gains against rare large losses, tail risk for option sellers, time decay for buyers, and why option selling is not steady income.
Derivatives, module 2: Leverage, short selling and risk
Expiry, gap and settlement risks
Expiry-day swings, overnight gaps, physical settlement and assignment, and what SEBI's study found about individual traders in Indian F&O.
Derivatives, module 3: Volatility and options Greeks
Historical and implied volatility
Measuring historical volatility, reading implied volatility from option prices, volatility indices, and why implied volatility often rises when markets fall.
Derivatives, module 3: Volatility and options Greeks
Options Greeks: delta and gamma
Delta as an option's sensitivity to the underlying and a rough probability, gamma as the change in delta, and why gamma risk grows sharply near expiry.
Derivatives, module 3: Volatility and options Greeks
Theta, time decay and vega
Theta and accelerating time decay, vega and implied volatility, and how the Greeks combine so a buyer can be right on direction and still lose money.
Derivatives, module 4: Hedging, arbitrage and basis
Hedging with derivatives
Hedging a portfolio with index futures or put options, sizing the hedge with beta, what protection costs, and why real hedges are imperfect.
Derivatives, module 4: Hedging, arbitrage and basis
Basis, cost of carry and convergence
How a futures price links to the spot price through the cost of carry, what basis, contango and backwardation mean, and why prices converge at expiry.
Derivatives, module 4: Hedging, arbitrage and basis
Arbitrage basics
How cash-futures arbitrage works, why true arbitrage profits are rare and small, the hidden risks involved, and why risk-free claims deserve scepticism.
Derivatives, module 5: Market microstructure and quantitative methods
Market microstructure
Order book depth, price-time priority, market impact, hidden liquidity and market makers, and why execution costs grow with order size.
Derivatives, module 5: Market microstructure and quantitative methods
Algorithmic trading
Execution algorithms, high-frequency trading, algorithm products sold to individuals, the rules that apply, and why big firms' speed edge is not for sale.
Derivatives, module 5: Market microstructure and quantitative methods
Quantitative analysis
Turning a hypothesis into a tested model, factors such as value and momentum, data pitfalls, and why simple models and unpublished edges hold up better.
Investor protection, module 1: Recognising scams and protecting yourself
How to spot a stock market scam
The warning signs most investment scams in India share, from guaranteed returns and fake trading apps to personal payment accounts, and the checks that stop them.
Investor protection, module 1: Recognising scams and protecting yourself
Pump-and-dump schemes
How pump-and-dump schemes inflate the price of small, thinly traded shares with hype and then sell to the people who believed it, and how to recognise one early.
Investor protection, module 1: Recognising scams and protecting yourself
Stock tip groups on Telegram and WhatsApp
How chat-group stock tips really make money for the people who send them, how a fake perfect track record is built, and why screenshots of profits prove nothing.
Investor protection, module 1: Recognising scams and protecting yourself
How to verify a claim and report a fraud
How to check an adviser or broker against official records, where each kind of complaint belongs, and what to do first if you have been defrauded.
Investor protection, module 2: Misleading claims and conflicts of interest
Fake testimonials, screenshots and misleading advertisements
How testimonials, profit screenshots and students' results are faked or selected, why even honest ones prove little, and what to ask of any investment advert.
Investor protection, module 2: Misleading claims and conflicts of interest
Misleading backtests and cherry-picked results
Why a strategy's impressive past test results can be an illusion, from cherry-picked dates and curve-fitting to ignored costs, and what to ask before trusting one.
Investor protection, module 2: Misleading claims and conflicts of interest
Undisclosed conflicts of interest
How commissions, paid promotions, referral fees and personal holdings can shape the advice and content you see, and the questions that reveal a hidden conflict.
Investor protection, module 2: Misleading claims and conflicts of interest
Unregistered and unauthorised intermediaries
Who must be registered with SEBI to advise, manage money or handle trades, why account-handling and profit-sharing offers are risky, and what you lose by using them.
Investor protection, module 2: Misleading claims and conflicts of interest
Impersonation, phishing and account security
How fraudsters pose as brokers, advisers and regulators, how phishing messages steal logins and OTPs, and the habits that keep your trading and demat accounts safe.
Investor protection, module 3: Myths, manipulation and advice
Market manipulation
How prices are manipulated through circular trading, false news, spoofing, front-running and insider trading, why each is illegal, and how it is detected.
Investor protection, module 3: Myths, manipulation and advice
Common stock market myths
Seven common stock market myths, from "it always comes back" to "a low price means cheap", what the evidence says instead, and why myths make people easy targets.
Investor protection, module 3: Myths, manipulation and advice
Education, research and investment advice
The difference between financial education, research recommendations and personal advice, who must be registered for each, and why a disclaimer changes nothing.
Investor protection, module 3: Myths, manipulation and advice
Using SEBI's investor resources
What SEBI and the exchanges publish for investors, from registers and enforcement orders to scam warnings and company filings, and how to use them to check a claim.
Investor protection, module 4: Complaints, grievances and recovery
Investor complaints and dispute resolution
How to complain about a broker, adviser or listed company in India, how escalation to SEBI and arbitration work, and what each complaint route can achieve.
Investor protection, module 4: Complaints, grievances and recovery
What to do after a suspected fraud
The steps to take, in order, after an investment fraud or account takeover, how to keep evidence, what recovery is realistic, and the recovery scams that follow.
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