Trading Tools

What a round trip actually costs after STT, exchange charges, SEBI fees, stamp duty and GST — and the sell price where you genuinely break even.

FY 2025-26 statutory rates, NSE. Gross P&L ₹2,000 − charges = ₹1,870.87; charges are 0.127% of turnover.

How many shares your stop-loss allows. Size from the risk, not the conviction — the stop decides the quantity, and the quantity decides whether a wrong trade matters.

Long setup. Quantity = risk budget ÷ risk per share, rounded down — rounding up would breach the one rule this tool exists for.

Every other tool here prices one trade. This prices the system — and no entry, stop or position size rescues a negative edge.

Half Kelly is the number to use. Full Kelly is growth-optimal only if these probabilities are exact and never drift, and its drawdowns are severe enough that most people abandon the system before the maths pays off.

Averaging down gets all the warnings. Averaging up has a quieter cost: it drags your breakeven up behind it, and the position that was well in front is suddenly less so.

Within a ₹20,000 limit you could add up to 300 shares — more than you might expect, because a stop above your cost turns the existing shares into a guaranteed gain that the new ones can spend.

Risk here is the whole position measured to the stop, not just the new shares — the old ones are still exposed. Brokerage, STT and tax are not counted. A stop is also not a guarantee: a gap opens through it.

Book part of a position and the cash comes back against the original outlay — so the shares you still hold have cost you less than you paid for them.

Sell 67 shares at ₹1,500 and the remaining 33 carry no net cost. Still outstanding on the rest: ₹25,000.

“Free” describes the cost basis, not the risk. Those shares still carry their full market value and it can still be lost — nothing is protected by having already been paid for. Brokerage, STT and capital gains are not counted here.

A stop that follows the peak up and never comes back down. It protects nothing until the price has risen further than the trail is wide.

The trail is measured down from the peak, not up from your entry, which is why the rise needed to reach breakeven is always wider than the trail itself. The peak is taken as the higher of your entry and the high you enter, since the high since entry can never be below entry.

Percentages are how risk is decided; prices are what the order window accepts. Converting that in your head at the moment of placing a trade is where fat-finger mistakes happen.

Your new average after buying more. Works for averaging up as well as down — the sign of the change tells you which happened.

Average falls by ₹26.67 (5.33%). Averaging down lowers your breakeven; it does not make a falling business a good one.

Bought across several tranches? Your true average blends all of them, not just the last top-up. Blank rows are ignored, not errors.

Fill in at least one row with a quantity and a price.

What a price target actually demands. “It will double” is a 26%-a-year promise over three years — worth saying out loud before believing it.

The gain needed to get back to even. Losses and recoveries are not symmetric, and the gap widens fast — which is the whole argument for a stop-loss.

A 100% loss is unrecoverable at any gain — zero capital cannot be multiplied back.

The capital a target monthly dividend income needs, at a given yield.

Gross of tax — dividends are taxed at your slab rate in India since FY21. Most Indian companies pay once or twice a year, so the income arrives in lumps, not monthly.

What one hypothetical trade would owe, before it exists in your portfolio — the same FY-aware rules (STCG/LTCG rate, ₹1.25L exemption, cess) as your portfolio's tax statement, applied to a single what-if.

244 more days turns this long-term — a lower rate and the ₹1.25L exemption, instead of the flat short-term rate.

Estimate only, for planning. Assumes listed equity taxed under sections 111A and 112A with STT paid, and excludes surcharge, losses carried in from earlier years, and gains held outside this portfolio. Not tax advice.

Neither creates value. The share count rises, the price falls by the same proportion, and what you own is worth exactly what it was the day before.

100 free shares credited. Fractional entitlements are settled in cash, so the count is rounded down.

Your holding is still worth ₹50,000 at cost — the apparent fall on the chart is the adjustment, not a loss. Holding period for tax purposes carries over from the original shares.

The only corporate action that takes fresh money. Declining is not free — the price still drifts to the ex-rights level, just without the discounted shares to offset it.

The offer is below the market price, so the entitlement carries real value. If you do not want more of the stock, rights are usually tradable on the exchange during the issue — letting them lapse gives that value away.

What a rupee of share price buys in earnings, against what the same rupee buys risk-free in a government bond. India's 10-year has paid 6–7.5% for years, which is a high bar.

The bond wins on today's earnings. This has to grow to justify itself: the multiple would need to fall to 14.3 for the two to be level as things stand.

An earnings yield is not income. The bond pays its coupon contractually; these earnings belong to the company, which may reinvest them, waste them, or never pay them out. The comparison sets a hurdle, not a forecast.

Instead of guessing a growth rate and calling the output a fair value, this takes the price the market is charging and solves for the growth it already assumes.

Compare the implied rate against the company's actual revenue and profit growth over the last five and ten years. If the market is pricing 20% and the business has compounded at 11%, that gap is the thesis you are taking on — in one direction or the other.

The premium is real, but it only applies to the shares the company actually accepts. The rest come back to you — often into a price with the buyback support removed.

Acceptance ratios are only known after the issue closes; the figure here is your estimate. Retail holders under ₹2 lakh sit in a reserved category and usually see a far higher ratio than the general one. Buyback proceeds are tax-free in your hands — the company pays the tax.

Settlement P&L at expiry — the arithmetic the exchange pays by, not a fair-value estimate. No Greeks, no time value: this is what the position is worth on expiry day.

“Rough leverage” is spot ÷ premium — the retail rule of thumb, not a real delta. An option's true sensitivity moves continuously with moneyness, time and volatility.

Buying or selling a move rather than a direction. Same strike on both legs is a straddle; different strikes make it a strangle.

Paying ₹24,000 is not ₹24,000 of risk in the usual sense — it is a requirement that the underlying travel 2.00% before the position is worth anything. Expiries often pass without that, which is how a trade with two ways to win still loses most of the time.

Figures are at expiry. If the underlying fell to zero this would make ₹11,76,000 — bounded even when the other side is not, since a price cannot go below nothing.

Two options, same expiry, different strikes. Both the best case and the worst are fixed the moment you open it — which is the whole point, and also the catch.

Buy the lower call, sell the higher — pays if the underlying rises.

Max profit and max loss always add up to the strike width times the quantity — they are two slices of one fixed amount, which is why a bigger credit always buys a smaller cushion. Figures are at expiry and exclude brokerage, STT and the margin the exchange actually blocks.

Selling a call against shares you already hold — income now, upside traded away above the strike.

Spot is at or above the strike — profit is capped here regardless of how much further it runs; the shares are called away at ₹500.

Breakeven is your buy price minus the premium — different from a naked call's breakeven (strike + premium), because the premium here cushions the stock's own cost basis, not the option's strike.

Buying insurance on shares you hold. Costs the premium; puts a floor under how much a crash can take.

Max loss is fixed at or below the strike, however far the stock falls beyond it — the put's intrinsic value rises rupee-for-rupee with the stock's fall below that point, cancelling it out. Breakeven is your buy price plus the premium: the stock must recover both before the position is whole.

How much margin a position demands, or how many shares a margin budget buys — the two sides of the same question.

“Broker margin” is the percent of position value demanded up front — brokers quote it this way (“20% margin”), not as a multiple.

The price a leveraged position gets force-closed at, and whether it is already below the maintenance line today.

A long's liquidation price sits below entry. The top-up figure restores the ORIGINAL margin level, not just the bare maintenance floor — real broker margin-call notices ask for enough to rebuild the buffer, not just clear the breach.

“5x leverage” sounds like a modest multiplier. This is what it actually does to an ordinary adverse move.

Not “how much will I have” but “how long until I get there” — the question you actually have when the number is already fixed in your head.

143 monthly instalments. Of the ₹1,00,00,000 goal, ₹59,25,000 comes from compounding rather than from your pocket.

Whether what you already hold reaches the goal on its own, with nothing further added. Past that point, compounding finishes the job.

Contributions are still doing the work here — this is what the existing balance alone would manage.

Work backwards from a goal to the monthly amount, or forwards from a monthly amount to where it lands.

Standard SIP arithmetic (monthly rate = annual ÷ 12, instalments at month start) so the figures reconcile with your fund house's calculator. Returns are an assumption, not a promise — 12% is a common long-run equity figure, not a guarantee.

A SIP that rises with your salary each year. Raising the instalment around 10% annually is the single cheapest change most plans can make.

Final instalment ₹75,949.97/month. Stepping up adds ₹72,76,178.87 against a flat SIP of the same starting amount.

The same money, all at once versus spread evenly. The lumpsum always wins on a single fixed rate — this shows exactly by how much, so “SIP beats lumpsum” is answered honestly rather than assumed.

The lumpsum wins because every rupee of it is invested for the full horizon, while the average SIP rupee is invested for roughly half of it — timing, not a market view.

The annual rate a start-to-end move actually compounds at. “Doubled in five years” sounds better than 14.9% a year — this is the honest translation.

The comparison is nearly always published before tax, which flatters the deposit. FD interest is taxed every year at your slab; equity is taxed once on sale, at a lower rate, after an annual exemption.

The FD compounds at 4.90%, not 7% — interest is assessable in the year it accrues, so tax is taken before it can compound. Equity taxed at 12.5% after a ₹1,25,000 exemption, plus cess.

The mental shortcut for how long money takes to double at a given rate.

72 is chosen because it divides cleanly by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 and 12, and is most accurate around the 8% band where most long-run equity conversations happen — not because it is exact.

What your return is worth after inflation, and what today's money is worth later.

Real return uses the Fisher relation, not nominal minus inflation — the naive subtraction flatters the result, and by more the higher the rates are.

Monthly instalment, and what the loan costs in total — useful for a loan against securities as much as a home loan.

Interest is 116% of what you borrowed, over the full tenure.

Gold lost indexation in July 2024 and never had equity's ₹1.25L exemption — so at equal returns, equity wins on tax alone.

Gold is taxed from the first rupee of gain; equity shelters the first ₹1.25L each year. Neither is indexed for inflation any more.

What a flat actually returns once stamp duty, maintenance and tax are counted — the costs that never appear in “property doubled in ten years”.

Total invested includes stamp duty, which also counts toward the cost of acquisition and so reduces the taxable gain. Rent is taxed at your slab as ordinary income. Long-term gains are 12.5% flat — indexation ended in July 2024.

Not a generic retirement pot: at least 40% of the corpus must buy an annuity and cannot be withdrawn, and the pension it pays is taxable income.

Contributions run to 60, the scheme's vesting age. The pension depends on annuity rates available then, not on the return that built the corpus — and unlike the lump sum, it is taxed as income every year it arrives.

“8.5% loan, 12% equity — obviously invest.” That comparison is wrong twice: the loan saving is tax-free, and prepaying frees the EMI years early.

A 8.5% tax-free saving needs 9.71% before tax to be matched, not 8.5%. Not modelled: the 80C and 24(b) deductions on a home loan under the old regime, which push the case toward keeping it, and prepayment charges, which most lenders cannot levy on floating-rate home loans to individuals.

The same fund, the same manager, the same portfolio — and about 1% a year between the regular and direct plan. Stated as a percentage it sounds like rounding.

A TER is charged on your whole balance every year, including the returns the earlier years' fees would have earned — which is why the gap grows far faster than the headline percentage suggests. Switching a fund from regular to direct is a redemption and repurchase, so check exit load and capital gains before you do it.

Drawing a monthly income from a corpus. The first year always looks affordable; what decides the outcome is whether the return beats the rate your withdrawal has to rise at.

You are drawing more than the corpus earns in real terms. Holding the withdrawal at ₹15,588.92 would make it last indefinitely.

The withdrawal is taken at the start of each month and indexed once a year, so its buying power holds. Each redemption is a partial sale with its own capital gains — long-term equity gains above ₹1.25 lakh a year are taxed at 12.5%.

The corpus that funds your current lifestyle through retirement, after inflation has had its way with it.

Withdrawals priced at month start, and the retirement return is converted to a real rate so spending keeps pace with prices. Your ₹60,000 lifestyle costs ₹2,57,512.24 a month by then — that gap is the entire reason for the corpus. The SIP figure assumes 12% a year until retirement.