Share market basics
An exchange-traded fund: a fund that holds a basket of assets, such as the Nifty 50 stocks or gold, and trades on the exchange like a share.
An ETF, or exchange-traded fund, is a fund whose units are listed on the stock exchange and bought or sold through your trading account like any share. Most Indian ETFs track an index such as Nifty 50, Nifty Next 50 or Nifty Bank, or an asset such as gold or silver. Buying one unit of a Nifty 50 ETF gives you a tiny slice of all fifty companies at once. ETFs usually have lower expense ratios than actively managed mutual funds, and you can trade them during market hours at live prices. The trade-offs are brokerage and the bid-ask spread, and some ETFs are thinly traded so the spread can be wide. Units sit in your demat account. For a beginner who wants market exposure without picking stocks, an index ETF or index fund is a common and simple starting point.
VideoA share is a portion of a company. The share market is where those portions change hands. Here is how it works, what you can trade in it, and why most people who trade actively lose money.
VideoThe share market runs on two activities that look alike and are nothing alike. Investing is owning a business for years. Trading is profiting from price moves over hours or weeks. Mixing them up is behind most early losses.
VideoTrading comes in a few distinct forms, and the one you pick decides how much time, capital and stress it takes. This lesson explains intraday, swing, positional, futures and options trading with Indian examples.
