Stock Market Glossary

Anything of value you own. A financial asset is a claim to money, such as a share, a bond or a bank deposit.

An asset is anything with economic value, such as cash, a building or an investment. A financial asset is a claim to money or value, such as a share, a bond or a bank deposit.

A share is one unit of ownership in a company. Equity is that ownership; a security is any tradable instrument.

A security is a tradable financial instrument, such as a share or a bond; the exact legal meaning depends on the country. Equity, or stock, is ownership in a company, and a share is one unit of it. ITC has about 1253.05 crore shares, each with a face value of Re 1.

A loan you can trade: you lend to the issuer and earn interest, but you own no part of it.

A bond is a loan in tradable form: the holder lends money to the issuer but does not own the company. Principal is the amount borrowed, and interest is the payment for borrowing it. Default means the issuer fails to pay as promised.

The coupon is a bond's stated payment, maturity is when the loan is repaid, and yield is your return at the price you pay.

Yield links the payments you expect to the price you pay, so it differs from the coupon rate whenever the price differs from face value. Some bonds pay no coupon at all.

The issuer creates and sells a security. An investor holds for years; a trader buys and sells on price moves.

The issuer is the organisation that creates and sells a security: ITC Ltd for ITC shares, Jio Platforms Ltd for its IPO shares. An investor commits money to assets, often for years. A trader buys and sells to gain from price moves; a trader who holds shares is still a shareholder.

The exchange is the marketplace, the broker sends your orders to it, and the regulator writes and enforces the rules.

An exchange is an organised marketplace with rules: ITC trades on NSE and BSE, Apple on Nasdaq. A broker is a registered firm that sends your orders to the exchange: Maya uses Sahi (Aaritya Broking Private Limited). A regulator writes and enforces the rules: SEBI in India, the SEC in the United States. Regulation does not promise anyone a return.

New shares are sold in the primary market, first in an IPO; existing shares change hands in the secondary market.

In the primary market, new securities are issued and the money goes to the issuer. In the secondary market, existing securities change hands between investors. An IPO, initial public offering, is a company's first public sale of shares. Jio Platforms' IPO was entirely a fresh issue of 27 crore new shares at ₹1065 to ₹1119, so the money went to the company. When you buy ITC on NSE, you buy from another investor, not from ITC.

Listing admits a security to an exchange. Its symbol, or ticker, is the short name you search for.

Listing is admission to trading on an exchange: Jio Platforms listed on NSE and BSE on 28 Oct 2026. A symbol, or ticker, names a traded instrument: ITC on NSE, AAPL on Nasdaq. India: NSE adds a series, such as EQ, after the symbol. Check the company name too: ITC and ITCHOTELS are two different companies.

In an IPO you apply in lots, a fixed number of shares. Once listed, you can buy a single share.

Jio Platforms' lot was 12 shares, so the smallest application at the top of the price band was 12 × ₹1119 = ₹13428. Once a share is listed, the cash market lets you buy a single share.

The price of the most recent trade. It tells you what already happened, not the price your order will get.

It tells you what happened, not what your order will get. ITC's LTP at the end of 19 Oct was 260.80. The LTP and the official close can differ: on 1 Jan 2026 ITC last traded at 363.95, but NSE's official close was 363.85.

The bid is what a buyer offers; the ask is what a seller wants. The best of each sits at the top of the order book.

A bid is a price a buyer offers, and the best bid is the highest one on show. An ask, or offer, is a price a seller wants, and the best ask is the lowest one on show. Both can change before your order arrives.

The best ask minus the best bid: the gap you lose if you buy and sell straight back.

Illustration on real price levels: with a best bid of 260.75 and a best ask of 260.80, ITC's spread is 0.05, one tick. Buying 10 shares at 260.80 and selling them straight back at 260.75 loses ₹0.50 before charges.

A session's opening price, highest trade, lowest trade and closing price.

ITC on 19 Oct 2026: open 262.70, high 263.90, low 259.95, close 260.80. India: NSE sets the open in a pre-open auction (orders from 9:00 am, trading from 9:15 am), and since 3 Aug 2026 sets the close of stocks with futures and options, such as ITC, in a closing auction. So the open and close are not simply the first and last trades.

The day's change is measured from the last session's official close, not from the price you paid.

The previous close is the last session's official close: ITC's 263.50 on Friday 16 Oct became Monday's previous close. The change compares today with it: 260.80 − 263.50 = −2.70, or −1.02%. It is not your own gain or loss. Providers may adjust the reference after a dividend, split or demerger.

The tick is the smallest price step allowed. The range is high minus low; the 52-week high and low span the past year.

The tick size is the smallest price step allowed: 0.05 for ITC and 0.01 for ITC Hotels, priced below ₹250 (India: NSE sets ticks by price slab and reviews them monthly). The range is high minus low: 263.90 − 259.95 = 3.95. ITC's 52-week high and low were 426.40 (31 Oct 2025) and 253.15 (8 Oct 2026), so the close sat 7.65 above the low and 38.8% below the high. ATH, the all-time high, uses the whole record.

Every quote has a time stamp. A delayed or closing price is a finished record, not a live price.

When the data was recorded, and whether the feed is live or delayed. A close dated 19 Oct 2026 is a finished record, not a live price. Check the currency, trading unit, session and data source before comparing two screens.

How many shares traded in a period, each trade counted once.

The number of shares traded in a stated period. ITC's NSE volume on 19 Oct 2026 was 11528925 shares, about 1.15 crore; Apple's on Nasdaq was 34573181. A trade of 10 shares adds 10 to volume, not 20 for the buyer and the seller. Derivatives volume may count contracts instead, so check the unit.

The money value of everything traded in a period.

ITC's NSE turnover on 19 Oct was ₹30136.39 lakh, which is ₹301.36 crore. A high-priced share with few trades can match a cheap one with many: MRF traded only 2209 shares that day, at a close of ₹121905, for a turnover of ₹2700.35 lakh, about ₹27 crore.

The average price per share over a period, weighted by how many shares traded at each price.

Total traded value divided by total quantity. NSE shows ITC's average price for 19 Oct as 261.40, and ₹30136.39 lakh ÷ 11528925 shares gives the same figure. It sat above the close of 260.80 because, on average, the day's shares changed hands above the closing price. Always state the window: a one-hour VWAP is not the day's VWAP.

How many separate trades made up the volume.

ITC had 93161 trades on NSE on 19 Oct, an average of about 124 shares a trade. Many small trades and a few large ones can give the same volume.

The buy and sell orders still waiting, and how many shares sit at each price.

The order book is the list of buy and sell orders still waiting. Market depth shows the quantity at each price, usually for the best few levels only. These are waiting orders, not completed volume. Past depth is not published, so any ITC depth picture is an illustration.

How easily you can buy or sell now without moving the price much.

The spread, the depth on show, the size of your order and the time of day all matter. High volume yesterday does not promise an easy fill for your order today.

How far and how fast a price moves in a stated period.

ITC's range on 19 Oct was 3.95, about 1.5% of the previous close. Volatility is not the same as liquidity or permanent loss: a busy share can swing a lot, and a rarely traded share can look calm yet be hard to sell.

The part of a day's traded shares that was settled into holdings rather than closed the same day.

Deliverable quantity divided by traded quantity × 100. For ITC on 19 Oct: 6131218 ÷ 11528925 × 100 = 53.18%, as NSE reports. The rest was bought and sold within the day. It does not show who bought, why, or where the price goes next.

Slippage is the gap between the price you expected and the price you got.

Price impact is how much your own order moves the prices on offer. Slippage is the gap between the price you expected and the price you got. Both can change a result even when the chart looks calm.

An order is your instruction; a fill, or execution, is the trade that results; a partial fill is only part of it.

An execution, or fill, is a completed trade against a matching order. A partial fill means only part of the quantity traded; what happens to the rest depends on the order's conditions.

Buy or sell now at the best prices on offer. Fast, but the price is not fixed in advance.

An order to trade at the best prices available now, under the exchange's rules. It does not promise a particular price, and a large market order may fill at several prices.

Trade only at your price or better. The price is controlled, but the order may not fill.

An order that trades only at its limit price or better. A buy limit at 260.00 can fill at 260.00 or lower; a sell limit at 260.00 can fill at 260.00 or higher. On 19 Oct ITC traded as low as 259.95, so 260.00 did trade. That still does not prove an illustrative 10-share buy limit filled: orders at the same price wait in time order.

A stop order waits for a trigger price, then becomes a market order (SL-M) or a limit order (SL-L).

A stop-market order (often SL-M) then trades at the market price; a stop-limit order (often SL or SL-L) becomes a limit order. Illustration on 19 Oct prices: a sell stop-limit with trigger 260.50 and limit 260.30 activates once ITC trades at 260.50, then sells only at 260.30 or higher. Neither type promises an exact loss.

A day order lasts until the session ends; IOC fills what it can at once and cancels the rest.

A day order is valid for that trading day; any unfilled quantity is cancelled at the end. IOC, immediate or cancel, fills whatever it can at once and cancels the rest. A cancel or change request can arrive after a fill, so always check it was confirmed.

GTC stays open across days; GTT waits at the broker until a price condition is met.

GTC, good till cancelled, stays open across days where the market or broker supports it, within their limits. India: GTT, good till triggered, is held by the broker and sent to the exchange only when its condition is met. It has its own expiry and is not an order already waiting at the exchange.

An AMO is placed after hours and sent at the next session; disclosed quantity shows only part of an order.

India: an AMO, after-market order, is accepted outside trading hours and sent to the exchange later. Being accepted does not mean it will fill at the next open. Disclosed quantity shows only part of an order to the market; the hidden part is still part of the order.

Short auctions that set the opening price and, for stocks with futures and options, the closing price.

India: NSE collects orders from 9:00 to 9:08 am, before normal trading starts at 9:15 am, and finds the one price that matches the most shares. Under that rule the auction set ITC's open of 262.70 on 19 Oct. Since 3 Aug 2026 a closing auction does the same at the end of the day for stocks with futures and options: orders are collected from 3:20 pm and matched by 3:35 pm. It set ITC's close of 260.80.

A position is what your trades leave you holding. Long means you bought; short means you sold first.

Quantity, or position size, is the number of shares, units or contracts. Long means you bought and hold; short means you sold first and owe delivery. In shares, a long gains when the price rises and a short gains when it falls. In options, long means bought and short means written.

To square off is to close a position with the opposite trade.

To square off is to close an open position with the opposite trade, in the same product and quantity. Holding means keeping the asset. India: broker labels such as MIS and CNC are product codes for that broker's processing, not market-wide terms.

Intraday means opened and closed the same day; delivery means the shares settle into your holdings.

Delivery means a share trade that settles into or out of your holdings. Carry-forward means keeping an exposure past the session, where allowed. On 19 Oct, 53.18% of ITC's traded quantity was marked for delivery; the rest was closed within the day.

Selling shares you do not hold yet, with a duty to deliver them.

Buying back the same day is one way to meet that duty. Securities lending and borrowing can also supply shares for delivery, under its own rules. India: naked short selling, selling shares you have no means to deliver, is not allowed.

What you paid per share across all your buys.

Total cost divided by quantity. Illustration: 10 shares at 301.65 cost ₹3016.50 and 10 at 255.00 cost ₹2550.00, so 20 shares cost ₹5566.50 and the average is ₹278.33 (278.325), before charges. Buying more to lower the average also makes the position bigger.

The paper gain or loss on shares you still hold, at today's price.

At ITC's 19 Oct close of 260.80, the 20 shares are worth ₹5216.00: 20 × (260.80 − 278.325) = −₹350.50. The day's P&L is only today's move: 20 × −2.70 = −₹54.00.

The gain or loss locked in once you sell.

Illustration: had Maya sold 10 of the 20 shares at the 16 Oct close of 263.50, that half is realised: 10 × (263.50 − 278.325) = −₹148.25 before charges and tax. The 10 she keeps stay unrealised: −₹175.25 at the 19 Oct close.

Gross is before charges, net is after. A profit is not cash you can withdraw until it settles.

Gross means before stated deductions; net means after them, so check which charges a report includes. A realised profit is not automatically cash you can withdraw: settlement, other obligations and your broker's terms still apply.

The price at which you neither gain nor lose, once costs are counted.

The price at which the result is zero. The average of ₹278.33 leaves out charges, so it is not the full break-even: add the buying and selling costs to find it. Dividends received are a separate part of total return.

MTM revalues a position at today's price; auto square-off is your broker closing it under its rules.

MTM, mark to market, revalues a position at the current market or settlement price. In futures, gains and losses are settled in cash every day, so MTM is real money, not just a screen number. Auto square-off is a broker closing your position under its rules, at market prices and possibly for a charge.

Risk is the chance of an outcome you did not want; exposure is how much a price move affects you.

Risk is uncertainty about the outcome, including loss. Exposure is how much a price move affects you: 20 ITC shares at 260.80 is ₹5216 of exposure. A risk budget is how much loss your plan allows; it does not stop a loss going further.

Leverage lets you control more than your own money; margin is the deposit that allows it.

Leverage means exposure larger than the money you put in. Margin is the money or approved collateral needed to hold certain positions. Collateral is an asset pledged as security, and a haircut is the cut taken from its value when working out how much it covers.

A demand for more money or collateral. If it is not met, the position can be closed.

If it is not met, the position can be closed under the rules. With some products you can lose more than you first put in; an option buyer and an option writer carry very different obligations.

A jump in price with no trades in between, so a stop can fill far from its trigger.

A gap is a jump past a price with no trades in between, often from one close to the next open: ITC closed at 301.65 on 26 May 2026 and opened at 295.65 on its ex-dividend day, 27 May. A fast fall within one session is a related risk, as on 1 Jan 2026. In either case a stop can fill well below its trigger, and a stop-limit may not fill at all. Price limits, halts and missing buyers can also block an exit.

The fall from a previous peak, usually in percent.

ITC fell from 426.40 (31 Oct 2025) to 253.15 (8 Oct 2026): a drawdown of 40.6% (dividends not added). Climbing back to the peak from that low needs a rise of 68.4%: a fall needs a bigger rise to recover.

Spreading money across assets that do not all move together.

Diversification spreads money across different assets or sources of risk. Concentration means a lot of money in one asset or one related group. Correlation is how two things tend to move together, and it can change. Diversification reduces some risks, not every loss.

A planned loss compared with a planned gain. It says nothing about how likely either is.

The risk-reward ratio compares a planned loss with a planned gain; how likely each is remains a separate question. Teaching assumption: risking ₹60 to aim for ₹120 is a 1:2 plan, not proof the target will be hit. Liquidity risk, credit risk and currency risk are the risks of not getting out, not getting paid and exchange-rate moves.

Bullish expects a rise, bearish a fall; a bull or bear market is a long rising or falling phase.

Bullish and bearish mean expecting a rise or a fall in a stated asset over a stated time. A bull or bear market is a broader rising or falling phase; definitions vary. These are descriptions or opinions, not outcomes.

A lasting direction over a stated timeframe: higher highs and higher lows in an uptrend.

Higher highs and higher lows describe an uptrend; lower highs and lower lows describe a downtrend. A short-term trend can run against a longer one.

A rally is a rise; a correction is a meaningful fall from a recent high.

A correction is a meaningful fall from a recent high; commentators often use about 10%, but there is no fixed rule.

Support and resistance are price areas where buying or selling held the price before.

Consolidation is when the price moves inside a fairly narrow band. Support and resistance are areas where buying or selling held the price before. They are observations, not walls that must hold.

A move past a marked upper or lower boundary, and a later return to test it.

A retest is a later return toward that boundary. Volume adds context, but no volume pattern proves the move will continue.

A change of direction. A failed breakout falls back inside the old range.

A reversal is a change in direction. A failed breakout falls back inside the old range instead of carrying on. Decide which period you are looking at before you name either.

The most a share may move from its reference price in a day.

NSE's list for 19 Oct 2026 shows ITC with no band, because it has futures and options, and ITC Hotels with a 20% band. Illustration: a 20% band around ITC Hotels' close of 158.50 runs from 126.80 to 190.20; NSE sets each day's actual band from its own reference price. A band is not a fair value and does not promise an exit.

Past prices adjusted after a split, bonus, dividend or demerger, so a chart compares like with like.

Real case: ITC Hotels was demerged with record date 6 Jan 2025, 1 ITC Hotels share for every 10 ITC shares. ITC closed at 481.60 on 3 Jan 2025; on 6 Jan a special pre-open set a price of 455.60, and it closed at 442.65. An unadjusted chart shows a drop of 26.00 at the open that was mostly value moving into the new company.

The shares held by all shareholders. Authorised capital is the ceiling; issued shares are those actually sold.

Outstanding shares are the shares held by shareholders: about 1253.05 crore for ITC. Authorised capital is the ceiling the company's documents allow. Issued shares are those the company has actually issued.

Face value is a share's value on paper; book value is net assets per share. Neither is its price.

Face value is a share's nominal value on paper: Re 1 for ITC, far below its market price of 260.80. Book value is an accounting measure of net assets: about ₹57.9 a share for ITC, consolidated. Neither is what you would receive if you sold or the company closed.

The shares freely available to trade, used to weight most indices.

The shares counted as freely available to trade, under an index provider's method. Stakes held for control or strategy, and locked-in shares, are usually left out. Free float sets the weight of a company in many indices but does not alone decide liquidity.

Who owns the company: the founding group (promoters), the public, and foreign and domestic institutions.

India: promoter holding is the stake of the founding or controlling group. ITC is unusual: it has no promoter. Its largest holder is the BAT group with 22.90%, and it had 4218619 shareholders at 30 Sep 2026. Public shareholding is a disclosure category, not the same as free float. FPI means foreign portfolio investor (the older term was FII); DII means domestic institutional investor.

Shares given as security for a loan, which the lender may sell.

If the borrower defaults or the collateral falls short, the lender may sell them. Read the current disclosure rather than assuming every pledge leads to a sale.

A payment to shareholders, usually cash per share, decided by the company and never assured.

ITC paid ₹6.50 interim and ₹8 final for 2025-26, ₹14.50 in all. Illustration: 100 shares eligible for both receive ₹1450 before tax. Do not confuse a percentage of face value with yield: ₹8 is 800% of ITC's Re 1 face value, but about 3.07% of its 260.80 price.

A split or bonus gives you more shares worth the same in total; a buyback takes shares back; dilution shrinks your percentage.

A split divides each share into more shares. Illustration: in a 2-for-1 split, 100 shares at ₹200 become 200 shares at ₹100, still ₹20000. A bonus issue gives eligible holders extra shares free. A buyback is the company buying back its own shares on stated terms. Dilution is when new shares lower an existing holder's percentage.

The record date decides who qualifies. From the ex-date, a buyer no longer gets the benefit.

From the ex-date, a buyer no longer gets the announced benefit; before it, the share trades cum, with the benefit. Real case: for ITC's ₹8 final dividend the record date and the ex-date were both 27 May 2026. ITC closed at 301.65 on 26 May and opened at 295.65 on 27 May, 6.00 lower against an ₹8 dividend: prices move for many reasons.

Share price times the number of shares: the market value of the company's equity.

It measures the market value of the company's equity, not its sales, its assets or the cost of buying the whole business. A low share price does not mean a small or cheap company.

Revenue is sales; net profit is what is left after all costs; cash flow is the cash that actually came in and went out.

Revenue is income from sales or services. Expenses are costs. Net profit is what remains after them. Cash flow tracks cash in and out, which can differ from profit. ITC's FY2025-26 consolidated revenue from operations was ₹89913.33 crore, and its profit for the year ₹21018.15 crore, of which ₹20689.47 crore belonged to ITC's own shareholders.

The profit belonging to shareholders, divided by the number of shares.

Basic EPS, earnings per share, is the profit belonging to ordinary shareholders divided by the average number of shares in the period. Diluted EPS also counts shares that could still be created. ITC's FY2025-26 consolidated basic EPS was ₹16.52. Dividing the whole ₹21018.15 crore by today's 1253.05 crore shares gives 16.77, a different figure: reported EPS uses only the ₹20689.47 crore that belonged to ITC's own shareholders, and the year's average share count. Use the reported EPS.

Share price divided by earnings per share: what you pay for each rupee or dollar of a year's profit.

ITC: 260.80 ÷ 16.52 = 15.8 on FY2025-26 earnings. NSE gives the Nifty 50 a P/E of 19.33 and Nifty FMCG 30.39 for 19 Oct 2026. Always state whether the earnings are past, trailing or forecast; with negative or tiny earnings the ratio says little.

Share price divided by book value per share.

ITC: 260.80 ÷ 57.9 = 4.5. Nifty 50: 2.81; Nifty FMCG: 7.30 on 19 Oct 2026. The accounting method and the type of business change how useful it is.

A year's dividends as a percentage of the share price.

Dividend per share for a stated period ÷ price × 100. ITC: ₹14.50 for 2025-26 ÷ 260.80 = 5.56%, a trailing yield. Nifty 50: 1.50%; Nifty FMCG: 2.62%. A past yield is not a promised future one. Total return adds price change and dividends together.

The value of the whole business: equity value plus debt minus cash.

A wider measure of business value. A simple version is equity market value + debt − cash. ITC's borrowings were about ₹2399 crore, but its cash and investments are not checked here, so we do not work out an EV. No single ratio decides whether a share is fairly priced.

An index is a number that tracks a basket of shares, such as the Nifty 50 or the S&P 500.

A benchmark is the yardstick you compare performance with. A sector groups similar businesses: ITC sits in the Nifty FMCG sector index. You cannot buy an index itself; you buy a fund or contract linked to it.

How much each company counts in an index.

Methods include free-float market value, price weighting and equal weighting. The rules differ from one index to the next.

A mutual fund pools many people's money; an index fund copies an index; an ETF's units trade on the exchange like shares.

A mutual fund pools money from many investors under a stated mandate and issues units. An index fund tries to track an index. An ETF, exchange-traded fund, has units that trade on an exchange like shares: Nippon India ETF Nifty 50 BeES (NIFTYBEES) closed at 261.20 on NSE on 19 Oct 2026. Some ETFs track an index; others are actively managed.

A fund's net assets divided by its units: the value of one unit.

Teaching arithmetic: ₹1 crore of net assets across 1 lakh units gives an NAV of ₹100. An ETF's exchange price can differ from its NAV, so compare the two on the fund's own page. Fees and tracking difference also affect results.

Your portfolio is everything you hold; allocation is how it is split between kinds of asset.

A portfolio is all the investments you hold. Asset allocation is how it is split between groups such as equity, debt and cash. Tracking difference is how far a fund's return differs from its benchmark; tracking error measures how much that difference varies.

Size labels by market value. In India: ranks 1 to 100 are large cap, 101 to 250 mid cap, 251 onwards small cap.

India: SEBI's mutual-fund rules rank companies by full market value: 1 to 100 are large cap, 101 to 250 mid cap, 251 onwards small cap, using AMFI's list. At about ₹3.27 lakh crore, ITC is large by this measure; AMFI's current list gives its official category. A size label is not a risk rating.

NSE's series labels: EQ is the normal market; BE trades must be settled by delivery.

EQ is the normal equity series, where ITC trades. BE is trade-to-trade: every trade must be settled by delivery, with no buying and selling within the day. Check the current series before placing an order.

The cash, or spot, market trades the share itself; the F&O segment trades contracts on it.

The cash or spot market trades the asset itself: ITC shares at 260.80. Derivatives are contracts linked to an underlying: ITC's October futures closed at 261.80 the same day. A segment is a market grouping with its own rules, such as cash and F&O, futures and options.

A contract whose value comes from something else, called the underlying.

A derivative is a contract whose value depends on something else, the underlying: a share, an index, a commodity or a rate. For ITC's futures and options the underlying is the ITC share, which closed at 260.80 on 19 Oct. Holding a derivative is not the same as owning the underlying.

A future obliges both sides to trade later at a set price; an option gives its buyer a right, not a duty.

ITC's October future closed at 261.80 and its November future at 263.10 on 19 Oct. An option gives its buyer a right, while the writer takes the matching obligation if the buyer uses it. Contracts are settled in cash or by delivery, depending on their terms.

A call is the right to buy and a put the right to sell, at the strike price; the premium is the option's own price.

The strike is the agreed price, and the premium is the option's own price. On 19 Oct, ITC's 260 Call (CE) closed at a premium of 3.45 and the 260 Put (PE) at 1.70, while the share was at 260.80.

Expiry is when a contract ends; exercise uses an option's right; assignment makes the writer meet it.

Expiry is when the contract ends: 27 Oct 2026 for ITC's October contracts. Exercise is using an option's right. Assignment is when a writer must meet that obligation. Check the style, settlement and deadlines in the exchange's current contract terms.

How many units of the underlying one contract covers.

ITC's lot is 1725 shares and the Nifty 50 lot is 65 on 19 Oct 2026. So one lot of the 260 Call at 3.45 costs 3.45 × 1725 = ₹5951.25 in premium before charges.

Volume counts contracts traded; open interest counts contracts still open.

Volume counts contracts traded in a period. Open interest, OI, counts contracts still open, each once, not once for the buyer and again for the seller. On 19 Oct, ITC's 260 Call traded 4452 contracts and had OI of 18705900 shares, which is 10844 lots. A new buyer and a new writer opening a contract raise OI; passing an existing side to someone else does not.

Where the share price sits against the strike: in, at or out of the money.

With ITC at 260.80, the 260 Call was in the money by 0.80; the rest of its 3.45 premium, 2.65, was time value. The 270 Call was out of the money and closed at 0.50. An in-the-money option need not make its buyer a profit after the premium.

Shares and money change hands one settlement working day after the trade.

The trade date, T, is when the order fills. Settlement is when the shares and money actually change hands. India: normal share settlement is T+1, the next settlement working day, not simply the next calendar day, so a trade on Mon 19 Oct 2026 settled on Wed 21 Oct. Optional same-day (T+0) settlement for eligible shares has its own rules. The United States also settles shares on T+1.

Pay-in is handing over what you owe; pay-out is receiving what you are owed; the clearing corporation guarantees both.

A clearing corporation works out and guarantees these obligations: for NSE trades it is NSE Clearing. Brokers may collect money or shares before the final settlement.

When a seller does not deliver, replacement shares are bought in an auction or the trade is closed in cash.

India: NSE Clearing runs an auction to buy replacement shares; if that fails, the trade is closed out in cash under its rules.

The depository records who owns which shares; your demat account holds yours.

A depository keeps the electronic record of who owns which securities; India has CDSL and NSDL. A DP, depository participant, gives you access to it. Your demat account holds the shares; your trading account places the orders. A funds ledger tracks the money in the account and what you owe.

The broker's record of the trades you made and the charges on them.

India: the broker must issue it within 24 hours of the trade. It may not include every later DP fee, so check it against your ledger, bank and holdings statements.

The broker's fee, the depository's fee and the taxes set by law, such as STT and stamp duty in India.

Exchange charges pay the marketplace. DP charges pay for some depository services. Statutory levies are set by law; in India they include STT (securities transaction tax), stamp duty, GST and SEBI turnover fees. Rates change, so no rate is assumed here.

Price times quantity. Total cost adds the charges on top.

Trade value is price × quantity: 10 ITC shares × ₹260.80 = ₹2608 (the quantity is an illustration). With an assumed ₹20 of charges, the cash out is ₹2628. Trade value is not total cost, net profit or cash you can withdraw.

The taxable profit on selling an investment, short or long term.

A capital gain is a profit on selling a capital asset under tax law; STCG and LTCG are short- and long-term capital gains. Trading income may be taxed differently. Your country, residence, the instrument and the facts decide, not a label you choose. India: AIS, the Annual Information Statement, lists tax information reported about you; check it rather than treating every line as taxable profit.

Words like sure-shot or multibagger are sales talk. Trading on unpublished price-sensitive news is illegal.

A multibagger is a share that has already multiplied in value; calling something "the next multibagger" is a forecast. Sure-shot, jackpot and operator-backed are sales words, not evidence. Trading on unpublished price-sensitive information, insider trading, is against the law.