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How the market actually works

194 lessons in 22 topics, free, in plain English. Every one ends in something you can check on your own account within five minutes. Nothing here tells you what to buy.

Last read: Why share prices move

Reading for India — every lesson shows that country's section. Change it here or on any lesson.

01. How the market works

13 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01What is a share?
  3. 02Where shares come from: the primary and secondary markets
  4. 03What a shareholder is actually entitled to
  5. 04Why share prices move
  6. 05What a stock exchange actually does
  7. 06Market makers, and where liquidity actually comes from
  8. 07Algorithmic trading, and who you are actually trading against
  9. 08The regulator, and what it does not protect you from
  10. 09Insider trading, and the tip in your group chat
  11. 10Reading promoter and insider buying
  12. 11What a stock index actually measures
  13. 12Trading hours and sessions
  14. 13Circuit breakers and trading halts

02. What a company is, and what owning one means

11 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01What is money, and why do we invest?
  3. 02What is a company, and what does it mean to own one?
  4. 03Sole proprietorship — the one-person business
  5. 04Partnership — two or more owners
  6. 05LLP — the limited liability partnership
  7. 06LLC — the limited liability company
  8. 07Private limited company
  9. 08Public limited company, and private versus public
  10. 09How is a company registered?
  11. 10Registering a company in India, step by step
  12. 11Registering a company in the USA, step by step

03. How companies raise money

4 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Why companies need money, and the equity-versus-debt choice
  3. 02Debt versus equity in detail — loans, bonds and shares
  4. 03NPV and IRR — how companies decide if a project is worth funding
  5. 04Dividend policy — why some companies pay you, and others never do

04. The economy behind the market

9 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Inflation, and how it is measured
  3. 02What happens when inflation rises too much
  4. 03Central banks and interest rates
  5. 04Why high inflation makes central banks raise rates
  6. 05Monetary policy, the meeting, and fiscal policy
  7. 06How much money can a country print?
  8. 07What gives money value, and why the US dollar rules
  9. 08What decides a currency's exchange rate
  10. 09GDP, growth, and how it all connects to the market

05. Bonds: the other half of the market

7 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Be the lender, not the owner: how bonds actually work
  3. 02Credit ratings: what AAA and junk actually mean
  4. 03Why bond prices fall when interest rates rise
  5. 04Duration: how to measure a bond's true risk
  6. 05The yield curve: the chart that predicts recessions
  7. 06The business cycle: boom, bust, and where we are right now
  8. 07Warrants and convertible bonds: when debt turns into equity

06. Getting set up, and how a trade actually works

11 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Brokers, and the accounts you need
  3. 02Opening an account, and what KYC actually is
  4. 03Where your shares actually live
  5. 04Nomination and transmission
  6. 05Placing an order, and order types
  7. 06Block deals and bulk deals
  8. 07Bid, ask, spread and settlement
  9. 08Trading rules every beginner must know
  10. 09Delivery against intraday, and what it costs
  11. 10Short selling
  12. 11The hidden leak: charges and taxes on every trade

07. Corporate actions and the IPO

8 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01When a stock changes shape: splits, bonuses and buybacks
  3. 02Offer for Sale: how large shareholders sell through the exchange
  4. 03Mergers and acquisitions: what happens to your shares
  5. 04What is an IPO, and why does a company go public?
  6. 05The players in an IPO, and what the bank is actually paid to do
  7. 06How an IPO is priced: fixed price and book building
  8. 07The full IPO timeline, every date explained
  9. 08Applying for an IPO, allotment and listing day

08. Reading a company's financial statements

7 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Why read financials, and what the three statements each answer
  3. 02What a balance sheet is, and the equation behind it
  4. 03Understanding assets
  5. 04Understanding liabilities
  6. 05Understanding equity, and what is actually yours
  7. 06How to read a balance sheet, line by line
  8. 07The income statement and the cash flow statement

09. Ratios, valuation and business quality

6 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01The P/E ratio, and why ratios matter
  3. 02Book value and the P/B ratio
  4. 03Profitability and debt ratios (ROE, D/E and more)
  5. 04Beta and CAPM — how the market prices risk
  6. 05The Sharpe ratio for investors — did you actually get paid for your risk?
  7. 06Beyond numbers — business quality and moats

10. Becoming a confident investor

8 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Value, growth and momentum: what kind of investor are you?
  3. 02Analysing a company, end to end
  4. 03Risk, return and diversification
  5. 04Position sizing, and how many stocks to own
  6. 05The power of compounding
  7. 06Investing, trading and gambling — and the mistakes that repeat
  8. 07Building your investing plan
  9. 08The kill switch: market psychology and your own mind

11. Market history: manias, crashes and manipulation

10 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Tulip Mania, 1637 — the first bubble, and the parts that are not true
  3. 02The South Sea Bubble, 1720 — when the smartest man alive lost his money
  4. 031929 and the Great Depression — what leverage actually does
  5. 04The dot-com bubble, 2000 — when the technology was real and the prices were not
  6. 05Black Monday 1987 and the machines — a crash with no news
  7. 06The Harshad Mehta scam, 1992 — how the money got in, and what it changed
  8. 07The 2008 global financial crisis — complexity is not safety
  9. 08The COVID crash, 2020 — the fastest fall and the fastest recovery
  10. 09GameStop and the meme-stock mania, 2021 — positioning is not value
  11. 10The anatomy of a bubble — what all of them share

12. Technical analysis: foundations

9 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01What technical analysis is, and what it is for
  3. 02Does technical analysis actually work?
  4. 03The history of technical analysis, and Dow Theory
  5. 04Chart types — line, bar and candlestick
  6. 05Reading candlesticks, and counting your own patterns
  7. 06Heikin Ashi, and what averaging removes
  8. 07Renko, Kagi and Three-Line-Break — charts without time
  9. 08Point and Figure — the oldest chart, and its false targets
  10. 09Market Profile and Volume Profile — where business was actually done

13. Trend, support and market structure

5 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Trends, trendlines and market structure
  3. 02Support, resistance and role reversal
  4. 03Fibonacci retracements and extensions
  5. 04Reversal chart patterns
  6. 05Continuation patterns and gaps

14. Indicators and confirmation

19 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Types of indicators — leading, lagging and the four families
  3. 02Moving averages — the trader's first tool
  4. 03Oscillators explained — overbought, oversold and momentum
  5. 04RSI — the Relative Strength Index
  6. 05Stochastic Oscillator — momentum within the range
  7. 06MACD — Moving Average Convergence Divergence
  8. 07Bollinger Bands — volatility and the squeeze
  9. 08OBV — On-Balance Volume
  10. 09VWAP — Volume-Weighted Average Price
  11. 10ADX and DMI — measuring trend strength
  12. 11Parabolic SAR — the trailing-stop indicator
  13. 12Supertrend — the retail trader's favourite trend tool
  14. 13CCI — the Commodity Channel Index
  15. 14Ichimoku Cloud — a whole system on one chart
  16. 15Pivot points — the day's levels, calculated last night
  17. 16ATR and volatility stops
  18. 17Divergence — when price and momentum disagree
  19. 18Confluence and confirmation — and the overload that fakes it
  20. 19Volume analysis and market breadth

15. Sentiment, cycles and system testing

9 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Sentiment and contrarian indicators
  3. 02Market cycles and seasonality
  4. 03Backtesting and system design
  5. 04Statistics for technicians
  6. 05Designing a rules-based trading system
  7. 06Optimisation, robustness and Monte Carlo
  8. 07Performance metrics — Sharpe, Sortino, expectancy and drawdown
  9. 08Correlation, regression and hypothesis testing
  10. 09Volatility analysis — historical, implied and the VIX

16. Putting technical analysis to work

3 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Relative strength, and choosing what to own
  3. 02Risk management and position sizing
  4. 03Behavioural finance, and why technical analysis works

17. Options and derivatives

21 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01What a derivative is, and why the market for them is so large
  3. 02Futures and forwards, and the price you actually agree to
  4. 03What an options contract is — calls and puts
  5. 04Buying options compared with writing options — two different games
  6. 05In the money, at the money, out of the money
  7. 06Delta — how much your option actually moves
  8. 07Gamma — how fast delta itself changes
  9. 08Theta — why every option you own is quietly losing value
  10. 09Vega — when the price moves and the market does not
  11. 10Rho, and putting the 5 Greeks together
  12. 11Hedging with options — what insurance actually costs
  13. 12The covered call, and exactly what you are selling
  14. 13The protective put, and what the insurance actually costs
  15. 14The collar, and why "zero cost" is not the same as free
  16. 15The straddle, and the move the market has already priced
  17. 16The strangle, and the trade with a 90% win rate
  18. 17The bull call spread, and what "defined risk" actually defines
  19. 18The bear put spread, and the part of the fall you sold
  20. 19The calendar spread, and the two prices of time
  21. 20The butterfly spread, and the cost of four legs
  22. 21The iron condor, and the month that takes back the year

18. Classical methods: Elliott, Wyckoff, Gann

3 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Elliott Wave Theory
  3. 02The Wyckoff method
  4. 03Gann analysis: angles, squaring and time cycles

19. Intermarket analysis and sector rotation

3 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Intermarket analysis: how markets move together
  3. 02Sector rotation and the business cycle
  4. 03Ratio analysis and relative strength

20. The technical professional

3 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Technical analysis in portfolio management
  3. 02Money management and risk at the portfolio level
  4. 03Ethics and professional standards

21. The trader's playbook

8 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01Investor or trader: do you even want to trade?
  3. 02Your trading plan: rules before you risk a rupee
  4. 03Risk management: surviving long enough to win
  5. 04Position sizing: how big should each trade be?
  6. 05How to scale: growing size without blowing up
  7. 06Mastering your emotions while trading
  8. 07The news and tip trap: why reacting loses money
  9. 08The trader's daily process and best practices

22. Fundamental analysis, end to end

17 lessons
  1. —Overview & checklist
  2. 01What is fundamental analysis?
  3. 02Economy to company: the top-down approach
  4. 03Industry and competitive analysis: the moat
  5. 04The annual report, and where to find the data
  6. 05The income statement, in depth
  7. 06The cash flow statement, in depth
  8. 07The balance sheet, in depth
  9. 08Profitability and efficiency ratios
  10. 09Liquidity, solvency and leverage ratios
  11. 10Valuation multiples — P/E, P/B, EV/EBITDA and more
  12. 11Intrinsic value and discounted cash flow, made simple
  13. 12Why you cannot value a bank like a technology company
  14. 13Earnings quality and accounting red flags
  15. 14Growth analysis and dividend investing
  16. 15Management, governance and business quality
  17. 16Spotting a fraud — corporate red flags before they cost you
  18. 17Full fundamental analysis of a company, end to end