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Short, plain-English explainers for the searching retail investor: how the option chain, PCR, max pain, and the BazaarBaazi Crack Score actually work. No jargon wall, no fluff.
The answer
BazaarBaazi Learn is a plain-English explainer estate for the searching retail investor, with 85 concept guides live now spanning IPO mechanics (GMP), capital-gains tax (LTCG and STCG), F&O reads (open interest, max pain, STT), surveillance flags (ASM and GSM), and the proprietary Crack Score.
BazaarBaaziSource & method
Explainers85 live
Every guide answers one clear question in plain English. The estate grows as the desk ships more.
Methodology
How the Crack Score works
The transparent 0 to 100 conviction model behind every BazaarBaazi verdict.
Glossary
Stock market glossary, A to Z
Every Indian-market term in plain English, from ask price to XIRR.
IPO
What is GMP
The unofficial pre-listing price chatter, what it signals, and why it is not a guarantee.
Tax
LTCG and STCG tax
The capital-gains rates on listed equity after the 2024 overhaul, the holding period, and the exemption.
Tax
What is STT
The tax baked into every market trade, and why F&O traders pay more since October 2024.
Risk
What is a stop loss
The single most important risk tool for a retail trader, and the common ways it goes wrong.
Mechanics
Circuit limits
The price bands that freeze a stock or halt the market, and why a stock gets stuck at a circuit.
Surveillance
ASM and GSM
Why a stock suddenly needs 100% margin or trades once a week, and what the flags mean.
F&O
Open interest
The count of live contracts, and what rising or falling OI tells you when paired with price.
F&O
Max pain
The strike where option buyers hurt most, why expiries drift toward it, and its real limits.
Mechanics
T+0 settlement
Same-day settlement in Indian equities, how the optional T+0 cycle runs alongside the T+1 default.
Corporate action
Bonus vs split
Two corporate actions that multiply your share count, and the one thing that actually changes.
Basics
Face value
The number printed on the share versus what it trades for, and why dividends quote off face value.
Valuation
Book value
What a company is worth on paper, and how the P/B ratio compares that to the market price.
F&O
What is an option chain
The full menu of calls, puts, strikes and expiries on a stock or index, and what each column tells you.
F&O
What is PCR
The ratio of put to call open interest, what a high or low reading signals, and the contrarian twist.
Basics
Demat vs trading account
Two different accounts that work together, why you need both, and what each one actually does.
Investing
SIP vs lumpsum
Spreading your investment across time versus putting it all in at once, and when each strategy wins.
Mutual funds
What is NAV
The per-unit price of a mutual fund, how it is computed, and why a higher NAV does not mean the fund is expensive.
Mutual funds
What is expense ratio
The annual fee that every mutual fund charges, what it covers, and why direct plans are cheaper.
Valuation
What is P/E ratio
Price to earnings, trailing versus forward, and why sector context is everything.
Basics
Large, mid and small cap
How SEBI classifies Indian stocks, and what the risk and return profile looks like across the 3 buckets.
Mutual funds
What is a mutual fund
Pooled investing, the AMC, fund types, and who mutual funds actually suit.
Income
Dividend yield
The formula, what a fat yield really means, and the value trap hiding inside it.
F&O
Reading the option chain
The full grid of calls, puts and strikes decoded, column by column, so you know what the market is actually pricing.
Orders
Intraday vs delivery
Two ways to trade the same stock, with completely different tax treatment, margin rules and risk profiles.
Borrowing
What is MTF
SEBI-regulated borrowing to buy more shares than your capital allows, and the interest clock that runs from day one.
Mechanics
What is short selling
Selling shares you do not own, how it works in the Indian market, and the real limits on retail short selling.
Corp Action
What is a buyback
When a company repurchases its own shares, why it does it, the tender versus open market route, and the 2024 tax change.
Corp Action
What is a rights issue
When a company offers new shares to existing shareholders at a discount, what the entitlement ratio means, and what happens if you do not subscribe.
F&O
ITM, OTM and ATM options
The three states of moneyness for any option, how to locate them on the chain, and why ITM options cost more.
F&O
Implied volatility
The market's forward-looking fear gauge baked into option premiums, and how to use it to judge whether options are expensive or cheap.
F&O
What is rollover
Moving a futures or options position from the expiring contract to the next month, and what high or low rollover percentage tells the market.
F&O
What is lot size
The minimum quantity you must trade in any futures or options contract, and why lot sizes change periodically.
Orders
Bracket vs cover order
Two intraday order types that enforce a built-in stop loss and offer higher leverage, and where they differ.
Orders
What is a GTT order
A standing order that fires automatically when a stock hits your trigger price, without needing to watch the screen all day.
IPO / Offer
What is an OFS
When promoters or large shareholders sell existing shares via the exchange mechanism, without the company raising any new capital.
IPO / Offer
What is an FPO
A second public share offering by an already-listed company to raise fresh capital or allow existing shareholders to exit, and how it differs from an IPO and a rights issue.
Tax
Save tax on stocks
The legal ways to reduce your capital gains tax bill before the financial year ends.
Tax
Tax loss harvesting
Using losing positions to cut your tax bill on gains, and the rules that govern it.
Tax
Dividend tax in India
Dividends are taxable in your hands at your slab rate, and the company deducts TDS above a threshold.
Tax
MF capital gains tax
Equity and debt MF gains taxed very differently, and the 2023 rule change that hit debt funds.
Tax
What is ELSS
The only mutual fund that cuts your taxable income and still invests in equity.
Mutual Funds
Index fund vs active fund
The passive vs active debate: what you get, what you give up, and the numbers that frame the choice.
Mutual Funds
What is an ETF
Exchange-traded funds: bought and sold on a stock exchange like shares, with NAV updating live.
Mutual Funds
What is XIRR
The return metric that accounts for irregular cash flows, and why your SIP statement uses it.
Mutual Funds
CAGR vs absolute return
Two different ways to express how much an investment has grown, and when each one misleads.
Valuation
ROE and ROCE
Two profitability ratios that reveal how efficiently a company uses its capital.
Valuation
Debt-to-equity ratio
The balance sheet lever that shows how much a company leans on borrowed money.
Valuation
Promoter pledging
When promoters borrow against their own shares, what it signals, and the collapse risk it creates.
Mutual Funds
SIP step-up
Automatically increasing your SIP amount every year to match income growth and build wealth faster.
IPO
What is ASBA
The application process that blocks your money instead of debiting it, and why your funds keep earning interest until allotment.
Corporate action
Ex-date vs record date
The two dates that decide whether you get the dividend, bonus or split, and the one trading day that makes the difference.
Corporate action
What is delisting
When a stock leaves the exchange, the difference between voluntary and compulsory delisting, and how reverse book building sets the exit price.
Mutual funds
STP and SWP
Two automated mutual fund tools: one moves money between funds in instalments, the other pays you a regular income from your investment.
Investing
What is an AIF
The privately pooled investment vehicle for wealthy investors, its three SEBI categories, and the 1 crore minimum that gates it.
Income
REITs and InvITs
Listed trusts that let you own a slice of rent-yielding real estate or income-generating infrastructure, traded like a stock and taxed as a pass-through.
Income
Sovereign Gold Bond
The government-backed way to hold gold that paid interest on top of the gold price, why fresh issuance stopped, and what existing holders should know.
Income
Debentures and NCDs
Corporate IOUs that pay you a fixed coupon, the secured versus unsecured split, and why the credit rating decides the interest you get.
Mechanics
Rolling settlement
The system where every trading day settles on its own clock, how it replaced the old weekly carry-forward, and what T+1 means for your money.
Strategy
Sector rotation
Why leadership shifts from one sector to another across the economic cycle, the broad pattern investors watch, and the honest limits of timing it.
Risk
What is beta
The number that measures how much a stock swings relative to the market, what high and low beta mean for risk, and where beta misleads.
Basics
Free-float market cap
The portion of a company's shares actually available to trade, why it differs from total market cap, and why the Sensex and Nifty weight on it.
Disclosure
Board meeting
Why a single line on the exchange saying the board will meet on a date can move a stock, and how to read the agenda behind it.
Disclosure
Buyback routes
The two ways a company buys back its own shares, why the tender route favours the retail shareholder, and the cap that limits any buyback.
Disclosure
Rights issue mechanics
The mechanics behind a rights issue: the entitlement ratio, the record date that fixes who qualifies, and the right to renounce that you can sell.
Governance
Related-party transaction
Deals a company does with its own insiders, the materiality line that forces a shareholder vote, and why the related party cannot vote on it.
Governance
SAST takeover code
The rule that forces an acquirer crossing a stake threshold to offer to buy out public shareholders too, and the creeping-acquisition limit.
Governance
Insider trading and PIT
Why company insiders cannot trade on secret information, what counts as price-sensitive, and why the trading window shuts before results.
Risk
Credit rating scale
What the AAA, AA, A and lower grades on a bond or company actually mean, where investment grade ends, and why the rating sets the interest you earn.
Disclosure
EGM vs AGM
The yearly meeting every company must hold versus the special meeting called when something cannot wait, and the resolutions each one passes.
Disclosure
Postal ballot
How shareholders approve a resolution without a physical meeting, why e-voting replaced paper, and what the result announcement tells you.
Restructuring
Scheme of arrangement
The court-supervised process behind mergers and demergers, why the NCLT and shareholders must approve it, and what a demerger does to your shares.
Macro
Repo rate
The single interest rate the RBI controls, why it sets the price of money for the whole economy, and how a rate cut or hike ripples into the stock market.
Macro
RBI monetary policy
What the RBI is actually doing when it sets policy every two months, the meaning of accommodative, neutral and tightening stances, and why the stance can matter more than the rate.
Macro
Inflation and CPI
What CPI inflation is, why the RBI watches it above everything else, and the two-sided way rising prices hit your equity portfolio.
Macro
FII vs DII flows
Who the two big institutional forces in Indian markets are, why their daily buying and selling makes headlines, and how to read the tug-of-war between them.
Macro
USD-INR impact
Why a falling rupee is a headline, which sectors win when the rupee weakens and which lose, and how the currency links to foreign flows and inflation.
Market structure
Index rebalancing
How the Nifty 50 and Sensex decide which stocks are in and which are out, the fixed schedule they follow, and why a stock can jump just for being added.
Valuation
Market-cap-to-GDP
The single ratio Warren Buffett once called the best gauge of whether a whole market is cheap or expensive, how to read it for India, and where its limits lie.
Valuation
Dividend yield vs bond yield
How comparing the dividend or earnings yield on stocks to the safe government bond yield tells you whether equities are richly or cheaply priced against the risk-free alternative.
Macro
CRR and SLR
The two reserve requirements that decide how much banks can lend, why the RBI moves them, and how they ripple into credit growth and bank stocks.
Macro
The bond yield
Why the yield on a government bond is the risk-free anchor of the whole financial system, the inverse relationship between bond prices and yields, and what a rising 10-year does to stocks.
Market structure
Bull vs bear market
The convention behind a bull and a bear market, where a correction sits between them, and why naming the phase matters less than knowing how to behave in each.
Macro
GDP for investors
What gross domestic product actually measures, the difference between nominal and real and GVA, and the loose, lagging link between economic growth and stock returns.
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What does BazaarBaazi Learn cover?
Market microstructure for everyday investors: the option chain, put-call ratio, max pain, and the transparent methodology behind BazaarBaazi's own Crack Score. Each guide is written to answer one clear question without a wall of jargon.
Is this trading education or investment advice?
It is educational, journalistic content published as independent media, not investment advice. BazaarBaazi is not a SEBI-registered research analyst or adviser. Consult a registered adviser before acting on anything you read.