Granthara All books
PART 01

Before Your First Trade: Stock Market Basics

52 of 52 pages writtenTurn the page ›
Before you begin

You own ten shares from page one. This book is everything that can happen to them.

The questions it answers

  • Why a ₹50 share is not cheaper than a ₹5,000 one
  • Where your money goes when you buy a share — and why the company gets none of it
  • Who sold you that share, and why they were glad to
  • What a company can do to your shares without asking you
  • Why a price halved overnight and nobody lost a rupee

Charts, ratios and options all sit on top of this. Skip it and you keep paying for the gap without ever seeing it.

How this book is different

  • One unbroken story across all 52 lessons. The same company, the same ten shares, the same numbers — never a fresh analogy per topic.
  • Nothing is explained in prose alone. Every idea has something you move, and it answers back when you are wrong.
  • No tips, no stock names, no predictions. Nothing here is selling you anything.
Chapter 01.01

Ownership, Not Tickers

8 of 8 written

  1. 01What a share of a company is
  2. 02Ownership vs lending: equity vs debt
  3. 03Authorised, issued, subscribed and paid-up capital
  4. 04Why price alone tells you nothing about size
  5. 05Market capitalisation
  6. 06What a shareholder is entitled to
  7. 07What a shareholder is not entitled to
  8. 08Limited liability
1 / 10
Chapter 01.02

Where Shares Are Born and Where They Trade

5 of 5 written

  1. 01IPO, FPO, private placement and QIP
  2. 02Fresh issue vs offer for sale: the difference in an IPO
  3. 03Why buying a share sends the company nothing
  4. 04Listing, delisting and suspension
  5. 05How to read an IPO prospectus
2 / 10
Chapter 01.03

Who Is on the Other Side of Your Trade

5 of 5 written

  1. 01Retail, HNI, DII and FII explained
  2. 02Promoters and insiders
  3. 03Market makers, prop desks and HFT
  4. 04Passive funds and index flows
  5. 05Same price, different reasons
3 / 10
Chapter 01.04

How the Exchange Actually Works

6 of 6 written

  1. 01Price-time priority: how orders are matched
  2. 02Pre-open, continuous session, closing auction
  3. 03Circuit limits, price bands, trading halts
  4. 04Settlement cycles, delivery vs intraday
  5. 05Demat, clearing corporation, counterparty risk
  6. 06Corporate surveillance: ASM, GSM, ban periods
4 / 10
Chapter 01.05

Mapping the Universe

5 of 5 written

  1. 01Large cap, mid cap, small cap and micro cap
  2. 02Sectors and industries: the classification hierarchy
  3. 03How an index is constructed: free-float weighting
  4. 04Index rebalancing and the flows it creates
  5. 05Benchmarks: broad, sectoral, thematic and strategy
5 / 10
Chapter 01.06

Packaged Ownership

4 of 4 written

  1. 01Mutual funds: active, passive, structure, expense ratio
  2. 02ETFs: creation/redemption, tracking error, liquidity traps
  3. 03Index funds and the cost of active management
  4. 04When a fund is the correct answer instead of a stock
6 / 10
Chapter 01.07

What the Company Does to Your Shares

5 of 5 written

  1. 01Dividends: declaration, record date, ex-date, yield
  2. 02Bonus issues and stock splits (why nothing changed)
  3. 03Rights issues and dilution
  4. 04Buybacks: tender vs open market
  5. 05How corporate actions distort your chart
7 / 10
Chapter 01.08

The Rules of the Game

5 of 5 written

  1. 01The regulator's role and investor protection
  2. 02Mandatory disclosures and where they are published
  3. 03Insider trading rules and what "material information" means
  4. 04Shareholding pattern disclosures
  5. 05What is legal, what is fraud, what is just bad practice
8 / 10
Chapter 01.09

What It Costs to Play

5 of 5 written

  1. 01Brokerage, exchange fees, statutory charges
  2. 02Spread and slippage as invisible costs
  3. 03Impact cost in illiquid stocks
  4. 04Short-term vs long-term capital gains treatment
  5. 05Building your personal cost model: your true break-even
9 / 10
Chapter 01.10

The One Principle That Precedes Everything

4 of 4 written

  1. 01Asymmetry of loss: why −50% needs +100%
  2. 02Survival as the first objective
  3. 03What you can lose vs what you can afford to lose
  4. 04The three questions to answer before any trade (preview of PART 20)
10 / 10

More chapters are being written.