Every market term, in plain English.

Big foreign investors — think a giant pension fund in America or a fund in Singapore — putting money into Indian companies. When they buy a lot, they're feeling good about India; when they sell, they're pulling money out. Their moves are big enough to push the whole market.

The big Indian investors — mutual funds, insurance companies, banks — investing money that belongs to lots of ordinary Indians. They're the local counterweight to foreign money: often when foreigners sell, these guys buy, and the other way around.

Almost the same thing as FII — foreign money invested in Indian stocks and bonds. "FPI" is just the newer, official name regulators use. When you see FPI numbers, it's a broader, confirmed measure of the same foreign money, counted by the depositories a day later.

A big, professional investor — a fund or bank — that the regulator has cleared as experienced enough to buy into things ordinary investors can't, like certain new share sales. Basically, the "grown-ups' table" of investing.

That's you and me — regular people investing our own money, usually smaller amounts, through an app. As opposed to the giant institutions moving crores at a time.

The people who own and run the company — the founders or the family or group in control. When you hear "promoter," think "the folks whose company this really is."

How much of the company the promoters own. High promoter holding usually means the owners have a lot of skin in the game. If it suddenly drops, that's worth noticing — the owners sold a chunk of their own company.

When promoters use their own shares as collateral for a loan — like putting up your house to borrow money. It's not automatically bad, but if a lot of shares are pledged and the stock falls, it can force selling, so people watch it.

A pre-arranged trade of a very large number of shares between two big parties, done in a special window so it doesn't disturb the normal market. Think of two whales quietly agreeing to swap a huge amount, off to the side.

When someone buys or sells a really big chunk of a company's shares — more than half a percent of the whole company — in the open market. The exchange makes them announce it publicly. It's like someone buying half the houses on a street in one day; everyone notices.

When the same big trade shows up as both a buy and a sell — because one side bought exactly what the other side sold. It's one deal, not two; we collapse it so you see the real single transaction, not double-counted.

Someone close to the company — a promoter, director, or senior employee — who buys or sells its shares. They have to disclose it publicly. When insiders buy their own stock, it can mean confidence; when they sell, people pay attention.

A version of the Nifty that trades even before India's market opens, over in GIFT City. Because it trades early, it gives an early hint of where the Indian market might open — up or down. It's the pre-dawn preview.

A list of 30 of India's biggest, most important companies, tracked as one number. When "the Sensex is up," those 30 big companies are mostly up. It's one of the two main scoreboards for the Indian market.

Like the Sensex but 50 companies instead of 30 — India's 50 biggest, tracked as one number. It's the most-watched scoreboard for how the Indian market is doing overall.

The day when certain contracts (bets on where stocks or the market will go) come due and settle. On expiry days the market can get extra jumpy because lots of these contracts are being closed out at once.

A safety brake. If a stock rises or falls too fast in one day, the exchange freezes trading in it — an "upper circuit" if it shot up, a "lower circuit" if it crashed. It stops panic from running wild.

Of all the shares traded in a stock today, how many people actually kept them versus just flipped them the same day. High delivery % means people are buying to hold — a sign of real conviction, not just quick trading.

What the whole company is worth on the stock market — share price times the number of shares. It's how you tell a giant (like Reliance) from a tiny company. Big = large cap, small = small cap.

The portion of a company's shares that are actually available for the public to buy and sell — leaving out the chunk the promoters hold tight. A small free float means fewer shares floating around, so the price can swing more easily.

For certain contracts, you can't buy just one share's worth — you have to buy a fixed bundle, called a lot. Like eggs sold by the dozen, not one at a time.

The cutoff day for perks like dividends. Buy the stock before the ex-date and you get the dividend; buy on or after, and you don't. It's the "you had to own it by now" line.

The day the company checks its list to see who owns the shares, to decide who gets the dividend or bonus. Closely tied to the ex-date.

A number that measures how nervous the market is. Low VIX means calm — everyone expects smooth sailing. High VIX means fear — people expect big swings. Traders call it the "fear gauge."

How expensive a stock is compared to how much profit the company makes. A high P/E means people are paying a lot for each rupee of profit — usually because they expect big growth. A low P/E can mean it's cheap, or that people are worried.

The company's profit divided up across each share. If a company earns ₹100 and has 100 shares, that's ₹1 of earnings per share. It tells you how much profit each slice of the company is making.

The highest and lowest price a stock has touched in the past year. It's a quick sense of the range — is the stock near the top of where it's been, or near the bottom?

How many shares changed hands today. High volume means lots of interest and activity; low volume means it was quiet. Big moves on high volume are taken more seriously than big moves on thin volume.

In the contracts world, how many bets are currently open and unsettled. Rising open interest means money is flowing in and interest is building; falling means people are closing out.

A peek at how many buy orders and sell orders are lined up at different prices — showing how much demand and supply is waiting. Deep = lots of orders, so big trades move the price less.

The gap between the highest price a buyer will pay (bid) and the lowest price a seller will take (ask). A small spread means easy, liquid trading; a big spread means you lose a bit more crossing from one side to the other.

The price at which the stock most recently changed hands — the "right now" price you see ticking on the screen.

A slice of the company's profit paid out to shareholders as cash — a thank-you for owning the stock. Not every company pays one; steady, mature companies often do.

The dividend as a percentage of the share price — how much cash return you get just for holding, before any price movement. A ₹10 dividend on a ₹200 stock is a 5% yield.

The company slices each share into more, smaller shares — like changing a ₹100 note into two ₹50s. You own more shares, but each is worth less; the total value doesn't change. It just makes the price look more affordable.

The company gives existing shareholders extra free shares — say one free share for every one you hold. Like a split, you own more shares each worth proportionally less; it's a reward that doesn't change your total value.

The company buys its own shares back from the market, usually because it thinks they're cheap or it has spare cash. Fewer shares left means each remaining share represents a slightly bigger slice of the company.

The company offers existing shareholders the chance to buy more shares, usually at a discount, before anyone else. It's how the company raises fresh money from the people who already believe in it.

The original "sticker" value printed on a share (like ₹10 or ₹1) — mostly an accounting number, not what the share actually trades for. Useful mainly as a reference for things like dividends and splits.

What each share would theoretically be worth if the company sold everything it owns, paid off its debts, and split the leftover among shareholders. It's the "on paper" value, versus the market price people actually pay.

When we say FIIs "net sold ₹500 cr," it means after adding up all their buying and selling, they sold ₹500 cr more than they bought. "Net" = the leftover direction once both sides cancel out.

The first flow numbers you see in the morning are provisional — a quick early estimate. The confirmed ones come later, counted properly by the depositories. We show both and tell you which is which, so you never mistake a rough estimate for the final figure.

Trader slang for the live stream of prices and trades — "watching the tape" means watching what the market's actually doing moment to moment. A "quiet tape" means not much is happening.

The time before the regular market opens, when early signals (like GIFT Nifty and overnight global moves) hint at how the day might start. Our Pulse is built for exactly this window — your read before the open.

"Buy/sell right now at whatever the going price is." Fast and guaranteed to happen, but you take whatever price the market gives you at that instant. Good when you just want in or out and don't want to haggle.

"Buy/sell, but only at my price or better." You name the price; the trade only happens if the market reaches it. You get price control, but it might never fill if the market doesn't hit your number.

A safety net. You set a price where, if the stock falls to it, your shares automatically sell — so a small loss doesn't quietly turn into a huge one. It's the "get me out if this goes wrong" button set in advance.

Like a stop loss, but with a price floor — it triggers a sell if the stock falls to your stop, but won't sell below a limit you set. Protects you from selling into a crash at a terrible price, at the risk of not selling at all.

An order that sits and waits — sometimes for weeks — until the stock hits a price you chose, then fires. Set it and forget it: "buy this if it ever drops to ₹X."

Intraday means you buy and sell the same day — you never actually own the stock overnight, you're just riding the day's move. Delivery means you buy and keep the shares in your account. Intraday is renting; delivery is owning.

Closing out a trade — if you bought, you sell; if you sold, you buy back — so you end with no open position. Intraday traders "square off" before the market closes each day.

The first time a private company sells its shares to the public and lists on the stock market. It's the company's stock-market "debut" — your first chance to buy in as a regular investor.

A big pot where lots of people's money is pooled and a professional manager invests it across many stocks or bonds. You get instant diversification without picking stocks yourself — you own a slice of the whole pot.

Investing a fixed amount every month automatically, usually into a mutual fund — like a recurring deposit, but into the market. It spreads your buying over time so you're not betting everything on one day's price.

The price of one unit of a mutual fund — what your slice of the pot is worth per unit. It's the mutual-fund equivalent of a stock's share price, updated once a day.

The yearly fee a mutual fund charges to manage your money, as a percentage. A 1% expense ratio means ₹1 a year for every ₹100 invested. Small numbers, but over years they add up, so lower is generally better.

A mutual fund that doesn't try to pick winners — it just buys everything in an index (like the Nifty 50) to match the market. Cheap and simple: you get whatever the market does, no manager guessing.

Like an index fund, but it trades on the stock market like a share — you can buy and sell it any time during the day. A basket of stocks in one convenient, tradeable package.

A way to size companies. Large caps are the giants (stable, slower-growing), small caps are the tiny ones (riskier, but can grow fast), and mid caps sit in between. Bigger usually means safer but slower.

A big, well-established, financially rock-solid company with a long track record — the "safe, boring, reliable" kind. Think the household names everyone's heard of.

All your investments together — every stock, fund, and holding you own, seen as one collection. "How's your portfolio doing" means "how are all your investments doing overall."

Not putting all your eggs in one basket — spreading money across different stocks, sectors, or assets so one bad bet doesn't sink you. If one thing drops, the others cushion it.

How you split your money across different types of investments — stocks, bonds, gold, cash. It's the big-picture recipe for your money, balancing risk and safety to fit your goals.

A stretch where prices are generally rising and everyone's optimistic. A "bull" charges upward — so a bull market is the market charging up.

The opposite — a stretch where prices are falling and mood is gloomy, usually a drop of 20% or more. A "bear" swipes downward. When people say "the market's turned bearish," they mean falling and fearful.

A drop of roughly 10% from a recent high — smaller than a full bear market. It's the market "correcting" after running up too fast, often healthy rather than alarming.

A sudden, sharp, scary drop in prices over a very short time — hours or days. Rarer and more violent than a correction; think panic selling all at once.

A stretch of rising prices, often sharp and quick — the market "rallying" upward. Can happen inside any longer trend; even a bad year has rallies.

When a stock or market moves sideways for a while — not clearly up or down, just drifting in a range. Often a pause where the market "catches its breath" before the next move.

How much and how fast prices swing around. High volatility means wild up-and-down moves; low volatility means calm, steady prices. More volatility means more risk and more opportunity.

How easily you can buy or sell something without moving its price. A liquid stock has lots of buyers and sellers, so you get in and out easily; an illiquid one can be hard to sell without dropping the price.

The total money a company brings in from selling its stuff, before any costs are taken out. The "top line" — how much came in the door, not how much it kept.

What's left after a company pays all its costs — the "bottom line." Revenue is what came in; profit is what actually stayed. A company can have huge revenue and still make little profit.

How much of each rupee of sales a company keeps as profit, as a percentage. A 20% margin means it keeps ₹20 profit for every ₹100 sold. Higher margins mean a more efficient, often stronger, business.

How much a company borrowed compared to how much its owners put in. High debt-to-equity means it's leaning heavily on loans — fine if business is good, risky if things turn down.

How much profit a company squeezes out of the money its shareholders put in, as a percentage. High ROE means the company uses your money efficiently to make more money.

Similar to ROE, but it counts all the money the company uses — both from owners and from loans. A broader measure of how well the business turns its total capital into profit.

The actual cash moving in and out of a company — not accounting profit, but real money. A company can show profit on paper yet run short of cash; cash flow shows whether it truly has money in hand.

A snapshot of what a company owns (assets) and owes (liabilities) at a moment in time. It's the financial "health check" — what's in the bank versus what's owed.

The slice of a whole industry's sales that one company captures. If Indians spend ₹100 on soap and one company sells ₹30 of it, that's 30% market share. Bigger share usually means a stronger position.

The referee of India's stock market. It makes the rules, watches for cheating, and protects investors. When you hear "SEBI cracked down," it's the market's watchdog doing its job.

India's central bank — it controls interest rates, manages the rupee, and oversees the banks. Its decisions ripple across the whole economy and market, especially rate-sensitive sectors like banks and real estate.

The digital locker where your shares are held electronically — "demat" = dematerialized, meaning no paper certificates. You can't own stocks in India without one; it's where they actually live.

The middleman (usually an app now) that lets you buy and sell shares on the exchange. You place orders through them; they connect you to the market. Zerodha, Groww, and the like are brokers.

The marketplace where shares are actually bought and sold. India has two main ones — the NSE (National Stock Exchange) and BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange). Think of them as the two big bazaars where all the trading happens.

The behind-the-scenes process of actually swapping shares for money after a trade — making sure the buyer gets the shares and the seller gets paid. It's the "paperwork" that finalizes every trade.

How fast a trade settles — "T+1" means one day after the trade (Trade day plus one). Buy today, and the shares are officially, finally yours by the next day. India moved to this fast cycle recently.

An agreement to buy or sell something at a set price on a set future date — locked in now, settled later. Traders use them to bet on where a price is heading without owning the actual stock. A promise now, a settlement later.

A contract that gives you the choice — but not the obligation — to buy or sell a stock at a set price by a set date. You pay a small fee for the option; if it works out you use it, if not you let it expire. Like paying a small booking fee to lock a price, which you can walk away from.

The kind of option that bets a stock will go up. It gives you the right to buy at a set price — so if the stock climbs above that, your option gains value. "Call = betting up."

The opposite — it bets a stock will go down. It gives you the right to sell at a set price, so if the stock falls below that, your option gains value. "Put = betting down."

The set price written into an option — the price at which you'd get to buy (call) or sell (put). It's the line the stock has to cross for the option to start making money.

The fee you pay to buy an option — the cost of the "choice" it gives you. Small compared to buying the stock outright, but you lose it if the option expires worthless.

An option is "in the money" if using it would make a profit right now, and "out of the money" if it wouldn't. In = worth using; out = not worth using (yet).

Taking a second position to protect against a loss on your first — like buying insurance for an investment. If your main bet goes wrong, the hedge softens the blow. It's about safety, not extra profit.

Betting a stock will fall — you borrow shares, sell them now, and hope to buy them back cheaper later, pocketing the difference. Unusual because you're selling something you don't own, hoping the price drops.

Borrowing money from your broker to buy more than your own cash allows. It can magnify gains — but also magnify losses, since you have to pay the borrowed money back either way. Borrowed buying power, with a catch.

Using borrowed money (like margin) to make a bigger bet than your own cash would allow. A small move in your favor becomes a big win — but a small move against you becomes a big loss. It amplifies both directions.

A formal way brokers let you buy stocks partly on borrowed money and hold them for a while. You put in some, the broker funds the rest, and you pay interest on the loan.

Buying more of a stock you already own — often as its price changes — to adjust your average buy price. "Averaging down" means buying more as it falls, lowering your average cost (and your risk if it keeps falling).

When a stock's price pushes past a level it's been stuck below (or above) for a while — often on strong volume. Traders watch breakouts as a sign the price might keep moving in that direction. It's a description of a pattern, not a promise of what happens next.

A price level where a falling stock has tended to stop and bounce — like a floor. Buyers have repeatedly stepped in there before. Not a guarantee, just a level people watch.

The opposite of support — a price level where a rising stock has tended to stall and pull back, like a ceiling. Sellers have repeatedly shown up there before. Not a guarantee, just a level people watch.

The average price of a stock over a stretch of recent days, redrawn each day so it "moves." It smooths out the daily noise to show the underlying trend — is the stock generally drifting up or down?

A number from 0 to 100 that suggests whether a stock has been bought or sold too hard, too fast. Very high can mean "overbought" (run up a lot); very low can mean "oversold." A gauge of momentum, not a crystal ball.

A tool that compares two moving averages to spot shifts in a stock's momentum — hints that an up-move or down-move might be gaining or losing steam. Traders use it to read trends; it describes momentum, it doesn't predict.

Lines drawn above and below a stock's price that widen when it's volatile and narrow when it's calm. When price rides the outer bands, it's moving unusually far from its average — a sign of a stretchy move.

A way of drawing each day's price as a little "candle" showing the open, close, high, and low — so one glance tells you whether buyers or sellers won that day. The building block of most price charts.

How much a stock tends to move compared to the whole market. Beta of 1 means it moves with the market; above 1 means it swings more (jumpier); below 1 means it's steadier. A measure of how wild a ride to expect.

How much an investment beat (or lagged) what you'd expect given its risk. Positive alpha means it did better than the market for the risk taken — the "extra" a good pick or manager added.

A score for how much return an investment gave for the risk it took. Higher is better — it means you got more reward per unit of stomach-churning. A way to compare investments fairly, not just by return.

Special "watch lists" the exchange puts risky or unusually-behaving stocks on, adding extra restrictions to protect investors. If a stock is under ASM or GSM, it's a flag: the exchange is watching it closely, and you should be careful.

The specific percentage limit that triggers a stock's circuit breaker — the exact threshold at which trading freezes if it moves too far up or down in a day. (Related to "circuit" — the general safety brake.)