Trading Academy

What Is a Stock Market?

A stock market is simply a place where buyers and sellers meet to trade shares of companies. Understanding how it works is the first step to understanding every other financial market.

What Is Equity? Buying and Selling Shares Explained

When you buy a share, you are buying a small ownership stake in a real company. Here is what that actually means — and how you make or lose money from it.

What Is Market Cap? Large, Mid and Small Cap Explained

Market capitalisation tells you the total value the market places on a company. It is one of the most useful numbers for understanding what kind of company you are looking at — and what kind of risk you are taking.

What Are Futures and Options?

Futures and options are contracts that let you trade on the future price of something — without necessarily owning it. They are powerful tools for both protection and speculation, once you understand what they actually are.

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Calls, Puts and Contracts: Why Options Are Not Traded in Single Shares

A call is a bet on rising prices. A put is a bet on falling prices. But you cannot buy just one — options are traded in standardised contracts, or lots. Here is what that means and why it works that way.

What is Long and Short? Going Long and Short in the Markets

Every trade is either long or short. Going long means you profit when prices rise. Going short means you profit when prices fall. These two directions are the foundation of every strategy in stocks, futures, and options.

Order Types: Market, Limit and Stop-Loss Explained

Before you can trade, you need to know how to tell your broker exactly what you want. The type of order you place determines the price you get — and whether your trade even happens at all.

Volume and Liquidity: Why Some Stocks Are Dangerous to Trade

Not all stocks are equal to trade. Volume tells you how active a stock is. Liquidity tells you how easy it is to get in and out. Miss these, and you can get trapped in a trade you cannot exit.

Charts, Candles and Timeframes: How Traders Read Price

A price chart is the trader's primary tool. Candlestick charts show you four critical pieces of information per period in a single visual bar. Here is how to read them — and how the timeframe you choose changes everything.

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What Is a Market Index? Nifty, S&P 500 and Beyond

A market index tracks the combined performance of a selected group of stocks, giving you a single number that represents the health of an entire market. Here is what indices are, how they are calculated, and why every trader watches them.

Bull Markets, Bear Markets and Everything in Between

Bull and bear are the two words you will hear most often to describe the stock market's direction. But the full vocabulary goes deeper — corrections, rallies, consolidation. Here is what all of it means.

Investor vs Trader: What Is the Difference?

Both investors and traders participate in markets, but they operate on completely different timescales, use different tools, and have very different relationships with risk. Knowing which one you are — or want to be — shapes every decision you make.

Dividends and Ex-Dates: Getting Paid Just for Holding Shares

Some companies share their profits directly with shareholders as cash payments called dividends. But there is a specific date you must own the shares by to receive one — and the stock price behaves in a predictable way around it.

Margin and Leverage: Borrowing to Trade More Than You Own

Leverage lets you control a position much larger than the money you put up. It multiplies your profits — and your losses — by the same factor. Understanding this before you use it is not optional.

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What Is an ETF? Index Funds You Can Trade Like a Stock

An ETF bundles dozens or hundreds of stocks into a single, tradeable share. It gives you instant diversification at low cost — and you can buy or sell it any time the market is open. Here is how it works and why it matters.