Start Your Journey.
Build your foundation: understand how stock markets work, the different types of orders, market participants, risk management, and trading vs investing styles.
38 topics38 ready to read9h 39m total Beginner
38 topics, in reading order
01BeginnerWhy Does the Stock Market Exist?Why the stock market exists, told as one story: Maya wants to open a restaurant, an investor buys a piece of it, and one day he wants his money back. Then the real version with Zomato and Info Edge, and what the market never promises.11 min
02BeginnerHow the Stock Market BeganFollow the stock market's road: VOC owners trading shares on a bridge in Amsterdam after 1602, London's coffee house, New York's Buttonwood Agreement and brokers under a banyan tree in Bombay, then India's move from the trading ring to screens, demat and the phone.8 min
03BeginnerWhat is the Stock Market?Follow one real share, ITC on NSE, from start to finish: what a share is, who owns ITC, how listing works through Jio Platforms' IPO, the path from order to demat, how prices form and move, and the risks. Every example is real; nothing here is a recommendation.13 min
04BeginnerIPOs Explained: How an IPO WorksHow a share is born: why a company lists, whose pocket the money goes into, the road from its first filing to its first trade, the three documents, what the price buys, and how bids, portions, blocked money, the draw and listing day work, on Jio Platforms' IPO of October 2026.18 min
05BeginnerIPO Quotas and Investor CategoriesAn IPO's shares are divided into quotas before anyone bids. Who anchor investors, QIBs, larger bidders and retail investors are, how each quota is shared out by proportion or by draw, the reserved doors and discounts, and how to work out your own chance, on Jio Platforms' IPO of October 2026.14 min
06BeginnerUnderstanding Market ParticipantsThe market is a full house: individuals, mutual funds, insurers, foreign investors, company owners, traders, brokers, exchanges and regulators each have a seat. With real, dated figures for ITC, the Jio Platforms IPO and the whole NSE market, see who sits where, whose money it is, and who only provides the service.18 min
07BeginnerHow Does a Stock Exchange Work?Follow one real share, State Bank of India (SBI), on Thursday 22 October 2026: its two books on NSE and BSE, the order book and its two queues, price first then time, depth, the rails that keep trading orderly, the three records a trade leaves, and the same machine around the world.12 min
08BeginnerWhat Moves Share PricesWhy a share's price changes: buyers and sellers changing what they will pay as their view of a company's future changes, results against expectations, dividends and buybacks, interest rates, the economy and the sector, news and mood, bull and bear markets, and why price and value are different.15 min
09BeginnerYour Money Before the MarketWhat to do before you start investing: an emergency fund, health cover and no costly debt; what inflation takes from savings; compounding; who pays a return and how to read one; goals with dates; and risk money.15 min
10BeginnerWhat You Can BuyThe main types of investments on one shelf: what you lend to (deposits, bonds, government securities) and what you own (shares, gold, REITs and InvITs); funds as baskets of them and futures and options as contracts about their prices, each judged on how it pays, what can go wrong, how fast you can get out and what it costs.14 min
11BeginnerMutual Funds, Index Funds & ETFsMutual fund vs index fund vs ETF: what a fund and a unit are, what NAV tells you, active against passive on SPIVA's record, the two doors into one basket, the costs that never arrive as a bill, SIP or lump sum on real years, how to read a factsheet, and what no fund removes.15 min
12BeginnerAsset Allocation BasicsAsset allocation for beginners: give each part of your money a job and a date, see why one business shouldn't carry everything, time real falls against your deadlines, turn a fall into rupees, look inside funds before adding one, and rebalance by a written rule.16 min
13BeginnerTypes of Trading & Investment StylesTrading vs investing: one share, two jobs. See what each style asks of your day and your money, what frequent trades cost a ₹1 lakh budget, and what SEBI's count of real traders found, on Sun Pharma's real prices.14 min
14BeginnerStay Safe: Regulators, Scams & ComplaintsHow to avoid investment scams: what a regulator protects and never covers, how to check a person and a payee yourself, the script every scam follows, and where to go first when money goes to a fraudster or a firm lets you down.18 min
15BeginnerThe Three Accounts: Bank, Demat & TradingDemat account vs trading account: your bank holds the money, your broker carries the orders, and a depository keeps your shares in your name. How the three link, the KYC documents, your nominee, the selling permissions and the charges that stay.15 min
16BeginnerBrokerage, Charges & TaxesBrokerage is one line of seven. Follow one Tata Steel round trip on real NSE prices, line by line: brokerage, STT, the exchange and SEBI fees, stamp duty, GST and the DP charge, who receives each rupee, the contract note and ledger that record them, and the break-even price. Rates checked 30 October 2026.12 min
17BeginnerTaxes on Your TradesTax on shares starts when you sell. Follow one Titan what-if on real NSE prices: what kind of income a sale is, how to work out the gain (every charge but STT), why one weekend turned a 20% gain into a long-term one, dividends and TDS, trading as business income, which loss cancels which gain, advance tax and the records that prove it. India's rules for 2026-27.14 min
18BeginnerMarket Timings & AuctionsWhen can an order actually trade? Follow ICICI Bank through real days on NSE: the 9:00 am pre-open auction that sets the open, continuous trading, the closing auction that sets the close (3:30 to 3:40 pm from 7 December 2026), an after-market order saved on the Dussehra holiday, block and bulk deals, and the year's holidays.13 min
19BeginnerClearing & T+1 SettlementWhen do shares you buy become yours? Follow 2 Hindustan Unilever shares matched on Thursday 1 October 2026 to Monday 5 October: how T+1 skips holidays and weekends, pay-in and pay-out on settlement day, the clearing corporation and the money behind its promise, a short delivery's auction and close-out, selling before your shares arrive, and optional T+0.15 min
20BeginnerHow to Read a Stock QuoteHow do you read a stock quote? In five questions, on Tata Motors' real NSE page for Monday 26 October 2026: the right share and moment, the last trade and up or down from what, whether your quantity fits the order book, how busy the day was, and which limits and rules apply. Order-book quantities are illustrations.16 min
21BeginnerPlacing Your First OrderThere are three main types of stock orders, read on one real ticket: Maya's limit buy of 10 Swiggy at ₹229.00 on NSE on Wednesday 21 October 2026, from the eight boxes to the five records that prove what it did.16 min
22BeginnerZero to First TradeRehearse one whole trade on paper, buy to sale, on SBI's real week on NSE (19 to 26 October 2026): plan the exit first, fill the ticket, score each fill from the exchange's own prices, count every charge and review the steps apart from the result.13 min
23BeginnerUnderstanding Market IndicesAn index is a weighed basket of shares. On 19 October 2026 the Nifty 50 closed at 22,888.95, down 1.11%, and HDFC Bank alone carried 10.38% of the basket. See what is in the basket, how each share is weighed, and how one share's move tips the whole number.16 min
24BeginnerMarket Cap & Stock CategoriesITC's share price was ₹260.80 on 19 October 2026; multiplied by its 1,253.05 crore shares, its market cap was about ₹3,26,795 crore. Put real companies on India's official size ladder, from Reliance at rank 1 onwards, and see what the label does and does not tell you.24 min
25BeginnerCorporate Actions ExplainedA company can change what you hold without a trade. LIC's 1:1 bonus halved its price on 29 May 2026 and doubled every owner's shares: nobody lost a rupee. See what dividends, splits, bonus issues, rights, buybacks, mergers, demergers and delistings do, and the record date that decides who is in.15 min
26BeginnerCircuit Limits & SurveillanceA circuit limit caps a share's price for the day; it never supplies a buyer. On 15 October 2026 Sterlite Technologies traded 12,047 times, every trade at its lower circuit of ₹878.45. See how bands are worked out, why a stop-loss cannot get round them, what an ASM or GSM tag changes, and when the whole market stops.15 min
27BeginnerTechnical vs Fundamental AnalysisFundamental analysis studies a business, technical analysis its share price. Asian Paints earned 40% more in April to June 2026, yet its share fell 17% in the next three months. See both lenses on one real share, and what each can and cannot tell you.12 min
28BeginnerYour First Look at Charts & Price ActionHow to read stock charts in order: axes, candles, timeframes, trend, zones, volume and gaps, on the real Nifty 50, then two dated ChartBook plans and what happened next.16 min
29BeginnerHow to Read an Annual ReportRead a real annual report the way you read your own books: choose the company or the group, follow your questions to the pages that answer them, and see what the notes and the auditor add, on Mahindra, IndiGo and Info Edge.16 min
30BeginnerHow to Research a StockResearch one real company, L&T, start to finish: who pays it, how it grows, what its profit is made of, whose debt it carries, who owns it and what its price assumes. It ends in a dated one-page note, with no verdict.15 min
31BeginnerRisk Management 101Decide what a trade may lose before you buy: a small loss budget, a stop where you are wrong and a share count that follows from both, then plan for gaps past a stop, shared causes and a pause line for the whole account, on Sun Pharma, Swiggy, IndusInd Bank, Infosys and TCS.15 min
32BeginnerMargin, Leverage & PledgingMargin is a deposit, and the position it holds is what you gain or lose on. Follow one real week, Lodha from ₹1058.70 to ₹963.00 on NSE: three sizes of the same money, the margin parts, leverage both ways, an MTF loan, a pledge and its haircut, and a margin call with its deadline.15 min
33BeginnerTrading Psychology for BeginnersHow feelings and mental shortcuts steer trading, and how to catch them: judge a decision by its process, not its result; treat the price you paid as a record; spot loss aversion, revenge trading, confirmation, streaks and the crowd; and count not trading as a decision, on Maya's paper trade in SBI, LIC's ₹949 and GameStop's January.15 min
34Beginner12 Beginner MistakesTwelve mistakes beginners repeat, on one pre-flight card in the order a trade happens: the idea, the order, the holding and the review. Each comes with one dated fact from the lesson that teaches the fix, and one yes-or-no check to run before you buy.13 min
35BeginnerYour Routine: Watchlist, Journal & ReviewA stock watchlist is a short list of companies you are studying, each with a reason, a dated source and the next date to check. Follow Maya's board of Titan, Asian Paints, L&T and Jio Platforms: results days announced in advance, a list sized by her time, three lists, one evidence row a name, a weekly and monthly routine, rules to hold, add or sell written first, and a journal reviewed every quarter.15 minExtras
3 topics
36BeginnerStock Market GlossaryLearn the words by reading a real screen. Every term is pinned to a real number from ITC on NSE on Monday 19 October 2026, with Apple on Nasdaq for the same day where the data exists: quotes, orders, liquidity, profit and loss, valuation, funds and settlement.26 min
37Beginner17 Stock Market Movies, Series & Documentaries17 finance stories from 1983 to 2023, each set beside the real market event it is about and the date it happened: the year, director, length and certificate of each title, one money idea to learn from it, and one question to take away. Some are fiction, some retell real events, some are documentaries.18 min
38Beginner16 Indian Finance Movies & SeriesSixteen Indian films and series as ticket stubs. Six point to a real event, such as the 1992 securities scam, the Telgi stamp-paper case and demonetisation, and each stub sits beside the dated record of what courts, regulators and reporters actually found.18 min
Next up, Options & F&O.
Module 02 continues where this one ends. It is free to read, like every module.