Stock market glossary

271 terms used across Indian shares, futures and options, and mutual funds, each with a one-line meaning first and, where it helps, the formula and a worked rupee example. Words with a full lesson link straight to it.

A

Aadhaar e-signRules & regulators: A legally valid electronic signature made with a one-time password sent to your Aadhaar-linked mobile number. Used to sign advisory agreements online.
Account AggregatorRules & regulators: An RBI-licensed service that, with your consent, shares your bank, mutual-fund and other statements with a firm you choose, for a set time and purpose.
Active shareMutual funds: How different this fund's holdings are from other funds in the same SEBI bucket. Near 0% it is hugging the pack. It is not versus Nifty 50 — that number is the Nifty…
Advance feeRules & regulators: Paying for advice before the period it covers. An IA can take at most one year's fee in advance.
ADX (Average Directional Index)Technical analysis: The Average Directional Index (ADX) measures how strong a trend is on a 0–100 scale, without saying which way it points. Readings above about 25 are conventionally read…
AlphaMutual funds: Alpha is the part of an investment's return that is not explained by its exposure to the benchmark (its beta). Positive alpha means it returned more than its market…
Altman Z-scoreFinancial statements: A distress score from working capital, reserves, profit, sales, assets, liabilities, and market cap. 3 or more is safely away; 1.8 or less is the danger zone. The…
Analyst consensusRules & regulators: A summary of what several analysts have published on one stock, such as how many are bullish and the range of their targets. It counts views; it does not say who is…
ASM (Additional Surveillance Measure)Rules & regulators: ASM (Additional Surveillance Measure) is a list the Indian exchanges use to put tighter trading conditions — such as higher margins or trade-to-trade settlement — on…
Asset mixMutual funds: How the rupees split across shares, bonds, government paper, cash, gold and REITs. A 95% equity fund will bounce with the market; a cash-heavy book will not.
At the moneyFutures & options: A strike at, or nearest to, the current futures price. ATM options have the most time value and the most gamma.
ATR (Average True Range)Technical analysis: ATR (Average True Range) measures how far a price typically moves in one bar, in rupees, including any gap from the previous close. It is usually a 14-period average…
AUARules & regulators: Assets under advice: the value of the investments your adviser advises you on. An AUA fee is a percentage of this amount.
AUA feeRules & regulators: A fee worked out as a percentage of your assets under advice, billed for the period already served. Capped by SEBI at 2.5% of AUA a year per family.
AUM (assets under management)Mutual funds: AUM (assets under management) is the total market value of the money a mutual fund scheme manages, usually quoted in ₹ crore. It rises with new investment and market…

B

BacktestingBacktesting: Backtesting is running a trading or investing rule on historical prices to see how it would have behaved — its trades, returns, drawdowns and costs. It describes the…
BasisFutures & options: Futures price minus the cash (spot) price. Normally positive, and it shrinks toward zero as expiry approaches.
BASL / IAASBRules & regulators: BSE Administration & Supervision Ltd, the body SEBI has appointed to supervise investment advisers (the IA Administration and Supervisory Body).
BatmanFutures & options: Two ratio spreads, one each side, so the payoff has two peaks and a hole at the money.
Batting averageMutual funds: Share of month-ish windows that ended up. It is how often, not how much.
Bear call spreadFutures & options: Sell an out-of-the-money call and buy a higher one: a credit that pays unless the market rallies.
Bear put spreadFutures & options: Buy an at-the-money put and sell a lower one: a debit that pays if the future falls, with a defined floor.
BetaMutual funds: Beta measures how much a stock or fund has moved relative to a benchmark. A beta of 1 means it moved in step with the benchmark, above 1 means it swung more, and below…
Bid and ask (offer)Market basics: The bid is the best price a buyer will pay right now; the offer (or ask) is the best a seller will take. The gap is the spread.
Bollinger BandsTechnical analysis: Bollinger Bands are three lines around price: a 20-period moving average in the middle and bands two standard deviations above and below it. The bands widen when prices…
Book valueFinancial statements: The company's net worth divided by the number of shares.
BorrowingsFinancial statements: The total money the company owes to lenders.
Breakage feeRules & regulators: A charge some agreements apply if you end the service early. For an IA it can be at most one quarter's fee, and the rest of an advance fee comes back to you.
Broken wing butterflyFutures & options: A butterfly with one wing closer than the other, so one side of the pin is financed by the other.
BrokerageBacktesting: What the broker charges to place the order. On this site the default is a typical retail schedule, GST included in the statutory layer.
BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange)Market basics: BSE Limited, the older of the two big Indian exchanges. A company can be listed on both.
BTST (buy today, sell tomorrow)Backtesting: Buy today, sell tomorrow. A one-night hold. In India the shares have not yet settled.
Bull call spreadFutures & options: Buy an at-the-money call and sell a higher one: a debit that pays if the future rises, with a defined ceiling.
Bull put spreadFutures & options: Sell an out-of-the-money put and buy a lower one: a credit that pays unless the market falls.
ButterflyFutures & options: Long the wings and short twice the body, or the other way around: a view that the underlying pins a strike, with a defined loss.

C

CAGRMutual funds: CAGR (compound annual growth rate) is the steady yearly rate at which an amount would have had to grow to go from its starting value to its ending value. It describes a…
Calendar spreadsFutures & options: Short the near expiry and long the far one, same strike: a view that implied volatility in the back will hold up relative to the front.
Calendar straddleFutures & options: Sell the near straddle and buy the far one at the same strike: the purest trade on the term structure of volatility.
Call ladderFutures & options: Long one call, short two further up: a modest-rally view with undefined risk on a squeeze.
Call optionFutures & options: A call option gives its buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy the underlying at the strike price on or before expiry. The buyer pays a premium; the seller…
Calmar ratioBacktesting: Time-weighted yearly growth (CAGR) divided by the worst fall in this sample; the timing of your instalments does not move it. A high Calmar means the ride up paid for…
CandlestickTechnical analysis: One bar of price: open, high, low, close. A green candle closed above its open; a red one closed below.
Capture ratioMutual funds: Share of the category's up or down months this fund took, over 36 months (Morningstar's geometric method). Down capture below 1 is less painful in the sample, not a…
Cash conversion (CFO to operating profit)Financial statements: How much of the reported operating profit actually arrived as cash.
Cash from financing activitiesFinancial statements: Cash from borrowing, repayments, new shares, and dividends.
Cash from investing activitiesFinancial statements: Cash spent on or received from investments — factories, acquisitions, and financial assets.
Cash from operations (CFO)Financial statements: The cash the business generated from its ordinary operations.
CeFCoMRules & regulators: Centralised Fee Collection Mechanism: a facility run by BSE through which clients can pay fees to registered advisers and analysts.
CircuitMarket basics: An exchange-imposed limit on how far a stock may move in a session. On this site a hit is estimated from the prior close (2/5/10/20/40% bands), not a published NSE file.
Closing priceMarket basics: The last traded price of the period.
CollarFutures & options: A holding, a bought put underneath it, and a sold call above it: protection paid for by giving away the upside.
Cost of carryFutures & options: What it costs, in yield terms, to hold the future rather than the cash. Compare it with what money actually costs you.
Covered callFutures & options: Stock you already hold, plus a call sold against it: extra income in exchange for a cap on the upside.
Covered putFutures & options: Short the future and sell a put below it: the mirror of a covered call, for a position you are short.
CPR (Central Pivot Range)Technical analysis: The Central Pivot Range (CPR) is three levels calculated from the previous session's high, low and close — the pivot, the bottom central level and the top central level…
Credit ratingMutual funds: A letter grade on the bonds in the fund. AAA is the strongest Indian corporate paper. Sovereign is government. Unrated is not always junk — some issuers simply are not…
CroreMarket basics: Ten million rupees. ₹1 crore = ₹10,000,000. Indian market figures are almost always in crore.
Current ratioFinancial statements: What the company can convert to cash within a year, against what it owes within a year.
CWIP (capital work in progress)Financial statements: Capital Work in Progress (CWIP): money already spent on a factory or plant that is not finished yet. Not this year's capex, and not the plant already running.

D

Debt to equityFinancial statements: Debt to equity is a company's total borrowings divided by its shareholders' equity. It shows how much the company has borrowed for every rupee its owners have put in.
Delivery percentageTechnical analysis: The share of today's volume that was actually taken into a demat account rather than squared off the same day.
DeltaFutures & options: Delta is how much an option's price changes for a one-point (or one-rupee) move in the underlying. Calls have delta between 0 and 1, puts between −1 and 0, and…
Diagonal spreadFutures & options: A calendar with the far leg at a different strike: a directional lean on top of the time spread.
DII (domestic institutional investor)Ownership: The share held by Indian institutions — mutual funds, insurers, banks.
Direct planMutual funds: A mutual-fund plan that skips the distributor commission. Regular plans pay it out of a higher TER. Same portfolio, different NAV path.
Dividend yieldValuation: Dividend yield is the dividend a company paid per share over the last year, as a percentage of its current share price. It is the cash income one share produced…
Donchian channelTechnical analysis: A Donchian channel draws the highest high and the lowest low of the last N bars around price. A close above the prior channel top is the classic breakout signal used in…
Double plateauFutures & options: Two verticals either side of the money, so a modest move either way still pays and a large one does not.
Duration (debt funds)Mutual funds: How sensitive the bond book is to interest-rate moves, in years. Around 1 year is short; above 7 is long. When rates rise, longer duration usually hurts more.

E

Earnings yieldValuation: Earnings yield is a company's earnings per share divided by its share price, shown as a percentage. It is the P/E ratio turned upside down, which makes it easy to…
EBITDAFinancial statements: EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation: what the business earns from its operations before financing costs, taxes and the accounting…
ELSS (tax-saving mutual fund)Mutual funds: An ELSS (equity-linked savings scheme) is an equity mutual fund with a three-year lock-in whose investments qualify for a deduction under Section 80C of the Income Tax…
Emergency fundRules & regulators: Money kept somewhere safe and easy to reach, often several months of household expenses, for a job loss or medical bill. It is set aside before investing for goals.
EPS (earnings per share)Valuation: EPS (earnings per share) is a company's net profit divided by the number of its shares. It is the profit that belongs to one share, and the 'E' in the P/E ratio.
Equity share capitalFinancial statements: The face value of shares the company has issued.
EV/EBITDAValuation: EV/EBITDA divides a company's enterprise value (market cap plus debt minus cash) by its EBITDA. Because it counts debt, it compares companies with very different…
ExchangeMarket basics: The marketplace where shares change hands. In India the two big ones are the NSE and the BSE.
Exit loadMutual funds: An exit load is a fee some mutual funds charge when you redeem units within a set period after buying them, as a percentage of the amount redeemed. It is deducted from…
ExpectancyBacktesting: The average rupees a trade made. Negative expectancy with a pretty equity curve is a lucky streak.
Expense ratio (TER)Mutual funds: The expense ratio, or total expense ratio (TER), is the yearly fee a mutual fund charges, as a percentage of the money it manages. It is taken out of the fund a little…
ExpensesFinancial statements: What it cost to produce and sell what was sold in the period.
ExpiryFutures & options: The last day the contract exists. Weekly and monthly expiries are listed; after that the option is settled and gone.
Exponential moving average (EMA)Technical analysis: An exponential moving average (EMA) is an average of recent closing prices that gives more weight to the latest bars, so it reacts faster to new prices than a simple…

F

F&O banFutures & options: The exchange has stopped new F&O positions in this stock. You can only trade to reduce what you already hold. Spreads often widen and the future can disconnect from…
Fee capRules & regulators: SEBI's limit on what an IA can charge one family in a year: ₹1,51,000 under a fixed fee, or 2.5% of AUA under an AUA fee.
FII (foreign institutional investor)Ownership: The share held by foreign institutions such as overseas funds.
Fixed assetsFinancial statements: Land, buildings, plant and equipment the company uses to operate.
Fixed feeRules & regulators: A set rupee amount for a period of advice, whatever the size of your investments. Capped by SEBI at ₹1,51,000 a year per family.
Forward volatilityFutures & options: The implied volatility priced just for the days between two expiry dates. If an event sits in that gap, this number jumps. It is not the futures price — it is the…
Free cash flowFinancial statements: Free cash flow is the cash a business generates from its operations minus what it spends on plant, equipment and other capital assets. It is the cash left that could…
Free floatMarket basics: The shares that are actually available to trade, excluding what promoters have locked up.
Future and short putFutures & options: Long the future with a put sold under it: the same bullish view twice, with a premium for taking the second one on.
Futures calendarFutures & options: Long one futures expiry and short another: a trade on the spread between them, not on direction.
Futures contractFutures & options: A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell an underlying — an index or a stock — at a set price on a future expiry date. Unlike an option, both the buyer and the…

G

GammaFutures & options: How fast delta itself changes as the underlying moves. Largest at-the-money and near expiry.
Glide pathRules & regulators: A plan to move money from riskier to steadier investments step by step as a goal's date gets closer.
Gross NPAFinancial statements: The share of a lender's loans that borrowers have stopped repaying.
Growth optionMutual funds: Profits stay in the fund and show up in NAV. IDCW pays them out, so its NAV drops on each payout. For an IDCW plan we quote total return — payouts reinvested — taken…
GSM (Graded Surveillance Measure)Rules & regulators: GSM (Graded Surveillance Measure) is a stricter exchange watch list than ASM, applied in stages to stocks whose price does not appear to match their financials. Higher…

H

Heikin AshiTechnical analysis: Heikin Ashi is a smoothed candlestick chart in which each candle is built from averages of the current and previous bars, so runs of same-coloured candles show a trend…
Historical volatilityFutures & options: How much the underlying actually moved, looking backwards. Compared with IV it is the 'realised' side of the same idea.
Human life value (HLV)Rules & regulators: Roughly what your family would lose in future income if you died today, after your own expenses. A common way to size life cover.

I

Ichimoku cloudTechnical analysis: The Ichimoku cloud is a Japanese trend indicator made of five lines — tenkan-sen, kijun-sen, two senkou spans that form the 'cloud', and the chikou span. Price above…
Implied event moveFutures & options: A known date such as results adds extra movement to every expiry that still contains it. Reversing that gives the one-day move the market is paying for. It is a price…
Implied volatility (IV)Futures & options: Implied volatility (IV) is the yearly volatility that an option's market price implies, worked backwards from an option-pricing model. High IV means options are…
In the moneyFutures & options: A call with strike below the future, or a put with strike above it. It has intrinsic value.
INA numberRules & regulators: The SEBI registration number of an investment adviser, written INA followed by nine digits. You can look it up on SEBI's website.
IndexMarket basics: A basket of companies used as a yardstick. Nifty 50 is fifty large NSE names; Sensex is thirty on the BSE.
Index fundMutual funds: An index fund copies an index. An active fund picks. An ETF trades on the exchange. A fund of funds holds other funds.
Interest coverage ratioFinancial statements: How many times over the company's operating profit could pay its interest bill.
Interest expenseFinancial statements: What the company pays each year to service its borrowings.
IntradayBacktesting: Opened and closed in the same session. Overnight risk is zero; the square-off time is not optional.
Intrinsic valueFutures & options: What the option would be worth if expiry were now. Zero for out-of-the-money options.
Investment adviser (IA)Rules & regulators: A person or firm registered with SEBI to give investment advice for a fee. Their registration number starts with INA.
Investments (balance sheet)Financial statements: Financial assets the company holds rather than uses in the business.
Investor charterRules & regulators: A SEBI-written page every IA gives clients: what services to expect, your rights, what you are responsible for, and how to complain.
IPO (initial public offering)Market basics: Initial public offering: the first time a company sells shares to the public and becomes listed.
Iron butterflyFutures & options: Short the straddle, long the wings: a pin view with a defined loss.
Iron condorFutures & options: A short strangle with a long strangle wrapped around it. Defined risk, defined reward; wants the underlying to stay in a range.
IV percentileFutures & options: Where ATM IV sits in this name's own history. 80 means that IV is higher than it was on 80% of days in the window. In a stock screen the IV is the last chain print, not…
IV rankFutures & options: ATM IV as a fraction of the high–low range of the same window. Rank flags an extreme; percentile tells you whether that extreme was a one-off. In a stock screen that IV…

J

Jade lizardFutures & options: A short put and a short call spread: three legs, undefined on a crash, and a defined call side — the credit is not required to cover the call-spread width.

K

KYC and KRARules & regulators: KYC is the identity check every financial firm runs before serving you. A KRA (KYC registration agency) holds your KYC record so you do it once, not with every firm.

L

LakhMarket basics: A hundred thousand rupees. ₹1 lakh = ₹100,000. Starting capital on a backtest is often written this way.
Large capMarket basics: On this site, a company whose market cap is at least ₹20,000 crore. SEBI's official cut is the top 100 names, which is roughly the same neighbourhood.
LiquidityMarket basics: How easily you can buy or sell without moving the price. We measure it as rupees traded per day.
ListedMarket basics: Admitted to an exchange, so the public can buy and sell its shares during market hours.
Long callFutures & options: Buy a call: defined debit, unlimited upside if the future rallies through the strike plus what you paid.
Long condorFutures & options: A butterfly with the body split into two strikes: a cheaper pin view over a range, still defined.
Long iron butterflyFutures & options: Long the straddle, short the wings: a defined-risk view on a move, cheaper than the naked straddle.
Long putFutures & options: Buy a put: defined debit, pays if the future falls through the strike minus the premium.
Look-ahead biasBacktesting: Using information in a test that you would not have had at the time — tomorrow's close to decide today's trade. This engine is built not to do that; your reading of the…
Lot sizeFutures & options: The exchange's minimum size for a futures or options contract. You cannot buy one Nifty option; you buy one lot of them.
Lower circuitMarket basics: A lower circuit is the lowest price a stock is allowed to trade at in a session, set by the exchange as a percentage band below the previous close. When a stock hits…
LTP (last traded price)Market basics: The price of the most recent trade. On a quiet option it may be hours old, which is why bid and offer matter more there.

M

MACDTechnical analysis: MACD (moving average convergence divergence) is the gap between a 12-period and a 26-period exponential moving average of price. A 9-period average of that gap is the…
MarginFutures & options: The money the exchange blocks to keep a position open. It is not the same as the premium, and it is not the maximum you can lose on an uncapped short.
Market capitalisationMarket basics: Market capitalisation (market cap) is the share price multiplied by the number of shares a company has issued. It is what the market values the whole company at today…
Market-wide position limitFutures & options: How full the exchange's F&O bucket is for this stock, as a percent of allowed open interest. It does not apply to indices like NIFTY. Around 95% the stock can enter the…
Max painFutures & options: Max pain is the strike price at which option buyers, taken together, would lose the most — and option writers pay out the least — if the contracts expired there. It is…
Maximum drawdownBacktesting: Maximum drawdown is the largest fall from a peak to a later low in an investment's value over a period, as a percentage of the peak. It shows the worst loss someone who…
Micro capMarket basics: On this site, market cap of ₹500 crore and below. Thinly traded; a modest order can move the price.
Mid capMarket basics: On this site, market cap between ₹5,000 and ₹20,000 crore.
MITCRules & regulators: Most Important Terms and Conditions: a short, standard summary of the key terms between you and your adviser. You read and accept it before advice begins.
Model portfolioRules & regulators: A list of stocks with weights that the analyst keeps up to date, with a reason for every change. Any amounts shown are arithmetic on those weights, for illustration only.
Monte Carlo simulationRules & regulators: Running a plan through thousands of made-up market paths to see the range of outcomes. The share of paths that reach the goal is its probability.
Moving averageTechnical analysis: A moving average is the average closing price over the last N periods, recalculated every bar so it 'moves' with the price. The 50-day and 200-day averages are the ones…
Mutual fundMutual funds: A pool of money, run to a written mandate, whose unit price is the NAV.
Mutual fund distributor (ARN)Rules & regulators: A person or firm registered with AMFI to sell mutual funds for a commission. ARN is their AMFI registration number.

N

NAV (net asset value)Mutual funds: NAV (net asset value) is the price of one unit of a mutual fund: the market value of everything the fund holds, minus what it owes, divided by the number of units. Fund…
Net interest income (NII)Financial statements: Interest a lender earns on its loans and investments, less the interest it pays on deposits and borrowings.
Net profitFinancial statements: What is left after every cost, including interest and tax.
Net profit marginFinancial statements: Net profit as a percent of sales. How much of each rupee of revenue survives as profit.
Nifty 50Market basics: The Nifty 50 is the National Stock Exchange of India's benchmark index of 50 large, actively traded companies, weighted by free-float market capitalisation. It is the…
NSE (National Stock Exchange)Market basics: The National Stock Exchange of India. Most of the prices on this site are NSE prices.
Number of shareholdersOwnership: How many people and institutions are on the share register.

O

Omega ratioMutual funds: Gains over losses relative to a threshold (here, 0%). Above 1 means the up days paid for the down days, in this sample.
Open interest (OI)Futures & options: Open interest (OI) is the number of futures or options contracts that are still open — traded but not yet closed or settled. It rises when new positions are created and…
Open-interest buildupFutures & options: What today's price and open interest did together. Price up and open interest up is new longs; price down and open interest up is new shorts; falling open interest is…
Opening range breakout (ORB)Technical analysis: An opening range breakout (ORB) is an intraday setup that marks the high and low of the first bar (or first few minutes) of the session and watches for price to break…
Operating profitFinancial statements: Profit from the actual business, before interest, tax, and one-offs.
Operating profit margin (OPM)Financial statements: Of every hundred rupees of sales, how much survives after the cost of running the business.
Option GreeksFutures & options: Option Greeks measure how an option's price responds to the things that move it: delta to the underlying's price, gamma to changes in delta, theta to the passing of…
Out of the moneyFutures & options: A call with strike above the future, or a put with strike below it. Its whole price is time value.
OverfittingBacktesting: Tuning a strategy until it looks perfect on the past and fails on the next day. A 40-parameter masterpiece with eleven trades is this.

P

P/E ratioValuation: The P/E (price-to-earnings) ratio is a company's share price divided by its earnings per share over the last twelve months. It tells you how many rupees the market is…
PaRRVARules & regulators: Past Risk and Return Verification Agency: a SEBI framework under which an independent agency checks the past performance an adviser or analyst wants to show.
Part-time IARules & regulators: An individual IA who also runs another business outside SEBI's purview. They must keep it separate from advice and say so on their invoices.
PEG ratioValuation: The PEG ratio is the P/E ratio divided by the company's earnings growth rate. It asks whether a high P/E is backed by fast profit growth.
Percent from 52-week highTechnical analysis: How far below its highest price of the period the share is trading.
Pin riskFutures & options: The price with the biggest pile of open option bets. Near the last day, people who sold those options hedge into it, which can tug the market there. Use it only if the…
Piotroski F-scoreFinancial statements: Nine yes-or-no books tests, scored 0–9: profit, cash from the business, profit getting better, cash backing the profit, less debt, more ready cash versus bills, no…
Portfolio turnoverMutual funds: How much of the book the manager replaced in a year. 50% means about half the names were swapped. High turnover can mean more costs inside the NAV you already paid.
PositionalBacktesting: A hold of more than a day. Overnight gaps can skip your stop.
PremiumFutures & options: The price of the option, in rupees per share (or per index point). Multiplied by lot size, it is what you pay or receive.
Price to book (P/B)Valuation: Price to book (P/B) is the share price divided by the company's book value per share — its net worth on the balance sheet per share. A P/B of 1 means the market values…
Price to sales (P/S)Valuation: Price to sales (P/S) is a company's market cap divided by its revenue over the last twelve months. It values a company on its sales, which is useful when profits are…
Pro-rata refundRules & regulators: If you cancel, you get back the fee for the unexpired part of the period you paid for. The analyst cannot keep fees for time you will not be served.
Probability of profitFutures & options: A model-based estimate that the structure finishes in profit, using today's implied volatility. It is not a historical win rate.
Profit factorBacktesting: Gross profits divided by gross losses. Above 1 means the winners paid for the losers; 2 is a healthy reading, on enough trades.
Profit growthFinancial statements: How fast profit has grown, as a yearly rate over the period named.
Promoter holdingOwnership: Promoter holding is the percentage of a company's shares owned by its promoters — the founders, family or parent group that control it. Listed companies disclose it…
Promoter pledgeOwnership: A promoter pledge is when a company's promoters use their own shares as collateral for a loan. The pledged percentage is the share of the promoters' holding that is…
Protective putFutures & options: A holding plus a bought put: insurance whose cost is the premium, and whose floor is the strike.
Public shareholdingOwnership: The share held by the non-institutional public — individuals and smaller holders.
Put ladderFutures & options: Long one put, short two further down: a modest-fall view with undefined risk on a crash.
Put optionFutures & options: A put option gives its buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell the underlying at the strike price on or before expiry. Buyers use puts to profit from a fall or…
Put-call ratio (PCR)Futures & options: The put-call ratio (PCR) is the total open interest in put options divided by the total open interest in call options for an underlying and expiry. A PCR above 1 means…

R

Range forwardFutures & options: Buy a call above the money and sell a put below it: a directional view that also trades the skew, with a gap in the middle.
Ratio backspreadFutures & options: Short one at the money, long two further out: a large-move view whose cost is a quiet market.
Ratio spreadsFutures & options: Long one option and short more of a further strike: cheap or even a credit, with undefined risk on the short side.
Regular planRules & regulators: A mutual-fund plan that pays a commission to the distributor who sold it, out of a higher expense ratio. Same portfolio as the direct plan, lower returns by the…
Research analyst (RA)Rules & regulators: A person or firm registered with SEBI to publish research and buy, sell or hold calls on securities. Their registration number starts with INH.
Reserves and surplusFinancial statements: Profits the company has kept over the years instead of paying out.
Revenue (sales)Financial statements: The total value of what the company sold in the period.
Reverse iron condorFutures & options: Long the 20-delta wings, short further out: a defined-risk view that the market will move.
Reverse jade lizardFutures & options: A short call and a short put spread: three legs, undefined on a rally. The default is the shape, not a promise that the credit covers the put-spread width.
RIARules & regulators: Registered investment adviser: the everyday name for a SEBI-registered IA.
Risk profileRules & regulators: A written assessment of how much risk you can take and are willing to take, based on your age, income, goals, commitments and answers to questions. Your adviser does it…
Risk reversalFutures & options: Long a call and short a put, or the other way around: a synthetic directional view that also trades the skew.
Risk to reward (R:R)Rules & regulators: The distance from entry to target compared with the distance from entry to stop loss. It is arithmetic on the analyst's own levels, not a rating of the call.
RiskometerMutual funds: SEBI's six-level risk label for the scheme. A mandate hint, not a forecast of the next drawdown.
ROCE (return on capital employed)Financial statements: ROCE (return on capital employed) is a company's operating profit before interest and tax (EBIT) divided by all the capital it uses — shareholders' money and borrowed…
ROE (return on equity)Financial statements: ROE (return on equity) is a company's net profit divided by its shareholders' equity, as a percentage. It shows how much profit the owners' money in the business earned…
ROIC (return on invested capital)Financial statements: ROIC (return on invested capital) is a company's after-tax operating profit (NOPAT) divided by the capital invested in it — equity plus debt minus cash. It shows how…
Rolling returnsMutual funds: A trail of overlapping windows (usually 1y) rather than a single end-date CAGR. How often the fund was merely lucky lives here.
RolloverFutures & options: Closing the near-month future and opening the next one. The percent of open interest that has moved is the rollover figure.
RSI (Relative Strength Index)Technical analysis: RSI (Relative Strength Index) is a momentum indicator that scores recent price gains against recent losses on a 0–100 scale, usually over 14 periods. Readings above 70…

S

Sales growthFinancial statements: How fast sales have grown, as a yearly rate over the period named.
SCORESRules & regulators: SEBI's online complaints system. If your adviser does not resolve a complaint, you can file it on SCORES.
SeagullFutures & options: Sell a far put, buy a call spread with the credit: a cheap directional view whose leftover risk is a crash.
SEBI categoryMutual funds: SEBI assigns every scheme a category with written holding rules. Compare funds inside the same box on cost and return — different boxes follow different mandates.
SEBI mandateMutual funds: Each SEBI category has a minimum mix. A large-cap fund must keep at least 80% in the top 100 companies. Off-mandate is a watch, not a buy or sell.
Second opinionRules & regulators: A one-off review by an IA of advice or a portfolio you already have. It is advice in its own right, given under an agreement and within the fee rules.
SensexMarket basics: The Sensex is BSE's benchmark index of 30 large, well-established companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, weighted by free-float market capitalisation. It is…
ShareMarket basics: A slice of ownership in a company. If a company has issued one crore shares and you hold a hundred, you own 0.001% of it.
Sharpe ratioMutual funds: The Sharpe ratio is an investment's return above a risk-free rate, divided by the volatility (standard deviation) of its returns. It measures return earned per unit of…
Short callFutures & options: Sell a call: collect premium, undefined loss if the future rallies through the strike.
Short putFutures & options: Sell a put: collect premium unless the future falls through the strike. Undefined loss on a crash.
SIP (systematic investment plan)Mutual funds: A SIP (systematic investment plan) invests a fixed rupee amount in a mutual fund at a regular interval, usually monthly. Each instalment buys units at that day's NAV…
SlippageBacktesting: The difference between the price the strategy wanted and the price it would actually have got. Quiet names and large orders slip more.
Small capMarket basics: On this site, market cap between ₹500 and ₹5,000 crore. They move more, and they disappear more.
SmartODRRules & regulators: The online dispute resolution portal for the securities market. If a complaint is not settled, you can take it to conciliation and then arbitration there.
Sortino ratioMutual funds: Like Sharpe, but it only punishes months that fell short of the 3-month rate. A fund that jumps around on the way up can still score well here. Blank with fewer than…
SPAN marginFutures & options: The exchange's scenario-based margin for a derivatives position. The builder's margin figure is in this family, not a broker's exact number.
SpreadMarket basics: Offer minus bid. A wide spread is a cost you pay for getting in or out, on top of brokerage.
Stamp dutyMutual funds: India charges 0.005% on mutual-fund purchases. On a ₹10,000 SIP that is 50 paise. We apply it. TER is already in the NAV, so we never subtract that again.
Step-up SIPMutual funds: The instalment grows each year, the way a salary might. 10% step-up on ₹10,000 means year two is ₹11,000. Later, larger contributions weigh more in the XIRR.
StockMarket basics: Another word for a share, or for the company those shares belong to. On this site a 'stock page' is the page for one listed company.
Stop lossMarket basics: A stop loss is a price at which a trader plans to exit a position to cap a loss if the trade goes the wrong way. A stop-loss order turns that plan into an order the…
STP (systematic transfer plan)Mutual funds: Systematic transfer: a lump sits in one fund (often liquid) and a dated amount moves into another. The source NAV still moves while you wait.
StraddleFutures & options: A call and a put at the same strike, usually ATM. The buyer wants a big move either way; the seller wants a quiet expiry.
StrangleFutures & options: A call and a put at different, usually out-of-the-money, strikes. Cheaper than a straddle; needs a bigger move to pay.
StrapFutures & options: Two long calls and one long put at the money: a straddle that leans up.
Strike priceFutures & options: The price the option is written at. A 24,000 Nifty call is the right to 'buy Nifty' at 24,000.
StripFutures & options: Two long puts and one long call at the money: a straddle that leans down.
SuitabilityRules & regulators: SEBI's rule that every piece of advice must fit your risk profile, goals and situation. The adviser records why it suits you.
SupertrendTechnical analysis: Supertrend is a trend-following line drawn a multiple of the Average True Range (ATR) away from price. It sits below price in an uptrend and flips above price when the…
Survivorship biasBacktesting: Testing only on companies that still exist. Names that went to zero never make the list, so the past looks kinder than it was.
SWP (systematic withdrawal plan)Mutual funds: Systematic withdrawal: selling a dated rupee amount of units. Exit load and ELSS locks apply to the lots being sold.
SymbolMarket basics: The short code the exchange uses, such as RELIANCE or TCS. It is how the rest of the site names a company.
Synthetic longFutures & options: Long call and short put at the same strike: a futures substitute, with the skew baked in.
Synthetic shortFutures & options: Long put and short call at the same strike: a short futures substitute.

T

Target priceRules & regulators: The price the analyst expects the stock could reach within the call's horizon. It is the analyst's view, not a promise, and a call can have more than one target.
ThetaFutures & options: Theta is how much an option's price is expected to fall from one day passing, with everything else unchanged. It is the time decay an option buyer pays and an option…
TimeframeTechnical analysis: How much time one candle covers. A 15-minute chart has one candle per fifteen minutes; a weekly chart has one per week.
Top 10 holdings weightMutual funds: How much of the fund sits in its ten largest holdings. Around 30–40% is common. Above 50% means a few stocks will decide your month.
Total assetsFinancial statements: Everything the company owns, in rupees, as of the balance-sheet date.
Total liabilitiesFinancial statements: Everything the company owes — borrowings, payables, and the rest.
Tracking errorMutual funds: Annualised volatility of excess return versus the category average or a mapped TRI. Index funds want this small; active funds are being paid for it.
Trade-to-trade (T2T)Rules & regulators: Trade-to-trade (T2T) is a settlement segment in which every trade must be settled by delivery, so a stock cannot be bought and sold in the same day. Exchanges move…
Trading callRules & regulators: A short-horizon call, often intraday or a few days, with an entry, a target and a stop loss. These move fast, so they reach every client on the plan at the same moment.
Treynor ratioMutual funds: Extra return per unit of market-ish risk (beta). Useful when you already hold a diversified mix and care about how this fund moves with the category, not its own…

U

Ulcer indexMutual funds: RMS of percentage drawdowns. It punishes long, deep holes more than a single sharp dip.
UnderlyingFutures & options: The thing the derivative is written on — Nifty, Bank Nifty, or a stock such as RELIANCE.
Upper circuitMarket basics: An upper circuit is the highest price a stock is allowed to trade at in a session, set by the exchange as a percentage band (commonly 2%, 5%, 10% or 20%) above the…

V

VegaFutures & options: What the option gains for a one-point rise in implied volatility. Long options are long vega.
Vertical spreadFutures & options: Long one option, short another of the same type and expiry, different strikes. Caps both the gain and the loss.
Volatility (standard deviation)Mutual funds: Volatility is how much an investment's returns swing around their average, usually measured as the annualised standard deviation of returns. A higher number means a…
Volatility coneFutures & options: The shaded band is the range of realised volatility this instrument has actually printed at each time horizon. The solid line is today’s implied volatility (IV). If the…
Volatility premiumFutures & options: 30-day implied volatility minus realised volatility over the last 20 sessions. Realised volatility is how much the underlying actually moved, written as the same yearly…
Volatility smileFutures & options: Each strike on this expiry has its own implied volatility (IV). Plot those and you usually get a U-shape — a smile. The middle is the strike nearest today’s price. The…
VolumeTechnical analysis: The number of shares traded.
VWAPTechnical analysis: VWAP (volume-weighted average price) is the average price a stock has traded at during the session, with each trade weighted by its volume. It resets at the open each…

W

When similarly placedFutures & options: Past times this same kind of trade sat on this name, with similar option prices and a similar number of days left. We then look at how those trades actually finished…
Win rate (hit rate)Backtesting: The percent of trades that made money. A 40% hit rate with large winners can beat a 70% hit rate with small ones.

X

XIRRMutual funds: XIRR (extended internal rate of return) is the annualised return on a series of investments and withdrawals made on different dates. It is the standard way to measure a…

Y

YoY quarterly EPS growthFinancial statements: How much earnings per share grew this quarter versus the same quarter last year.
YoY quarterly profit growthFinancial statements: How much this quarter's profit grew versus the same quarter last year.
YoY quarterly sales growthFinancial statements: How much this quarter's sales grew versus the same quarter last year.
YTM (yield to maturity)Mutual funds: Yield to maturity: the annualised return if you held every bond in the fund to the end, and nobody defaulted. It is a snapshot, not a promise of next year's NAV.

Definitions describe what a number is and how it is commonly read. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.

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