Articles and guides
Every guide is written for Indian readers, shows its calculations and lists its sources. Filter by topic or search by keyword.
A ₹10,000 Monthly SIP in the NIFTY 50 from 2019 to 2026: What Really Happened
Original data study: a ₹10,000 monthly SIP in the NIFTY 50 from February 2019 to October 2026, its XIRR, rolling 3-year results, the COVID crash, the 2026 fall, and what pausing the SIP would have cost.
Asset Allocation and Rebalancing: How to Split Money Between Equity, Debt and Gold
How to decide your equity, debt and gold mix by goal and risk, how a portfolio drifts, when and how to rebalance tax-efficiently, and a 2019-2026 NIFTY example of rebalancing in practice.
Backtesting Without Fooling Yourself: A NIFTY Options Case Study on Costs and Overfitting
We backtested a popular 9:20 NIFTY short straddle on 1-minute NSE option data from 2023 to 2026, then tested 56 parameter settings in and out of sample. What costs, slippage and curve-fitting do to backtest results.
Debt Funds vs Fixed Deposits After the 2023 Tax Change: Which Wins Now?
Since April 2023, debt fund gains are taxed at slab rates like FD interest. A comparison of after-tax returns by tax slab, the deferral advantage, risks, and where liquid, money-market and target-maturity funds still fit.
How to Buy Health Insurance in India: The Clauses That Decide Your Claim
A practical guide to choosing health insurance in India in 2026: how much cover, room-rent limits and proportionate deductions, co-pay, waiting periods under IRDAI's 2024 rules, super top-ups, and tax.
How to Read an Option Chain: Open Interest, IV, PCR and Max Pain, with a Real NIFTY Example
A column-by-column guide to the NIFTY option chain using a real NSE snapshot: premiums, open interest and its change, implied volatility, put-call ratio and max pain, and what each can and cannot tell you.
Old vs New Tax Regime for FY 2026-27: The Break-Even Deduction for Your Salary
Slabs, rebates and deductions under both tax regimes for FY 2026-27, with the exact deductions you need at each salary level for the old regime to win, worked examples and a calculator.
Prepay Your Home Loan or Invest the Money? A Worked Answer with Real EMIs
What a ₹5 lakh prepayment does to a ₹50 lakh home loan, reducing tenure vs reducing EMI, how tax changes the effective loan rate, and when investing beats prepaying.
SWP for Retirement Income: How Systematic Withdrawals Work, and the Sequence Risk Nobody Mentions
How a Systematic Withdrawal Plan turns a mutual fund corpus into monthly income, why it is taxed more lightly than FD interest, how the order of returns can make or break a retirement, and the bucket strategy that protects against it.
Why 9 Out of 10 F&O Traders Lose Money: What SEBI's Studies Actually Show
SEBI's studies found 93% of individual F&O traders lost money over FY22-FY24 and 91% in FY25, with net losses of ₹1.06 lakh crore. Why options trading is stacked against retail traders, the 2024-2026 rule changes, and the maths of time decay.
7 Costly Mistakes Retail Investors Make in the Indian Stock Market, with the Numbers
The seven most expensive mistakes of Indian retail investors, from trading on tips to averaging down and timing the market, each with the numbers: including what missing the NIFTY's 10 best days since 2019 would have cost.
Capital Gains Tax on Stocks and Mutual Funds in India: FY 2026-27 Guide with Examples
Short- and long-term capital gains tax for FY 2026-27 on shares, equity and debt mutual funds, gold and property: holding periods, the ₹1.25 lakh exemption, set-off, gain harvesting and worked examples.
Direct vs Regular Mutual Funds: What a 1% Expense Ratio Gap Costs Over 20 Years
Same fund, same manager, different cost. How the direct and regular plans differ, what a 1% expense-ratio gap does to a SIP over 10 to 30 years, and how to switch without needless tax.
Donchian Channels Explained: A Breakout System Tested on NIFTY, 2019 to 2026
What Donchian channels are, how the classic 20-day breakout and 10-day exit rules work, and how that system performed on NIFTY 50 daily data from 2019 to 2026, with win rate, payoff and drawdowns.
ELSS vs PPF: Which Section 80C Option Fits You in 2026?
ELSS and PPF compared for 2026: returns (PPF at 7.1% for Oct-Dec 2026), risk, lock-in, liquidity and tax, with after-tax 15-year projections and what changes under the new tax regime.
Emergency Fund in India: How Much to Keep, Where to Park It and How to Build It
How big your emergency fund should be (3 to 12 months of essential expenses), a three-tier structure using savings, sweep FDs and liquid funds, what not to use, and a step-by-step plan to build it.
FOMO and Panic: The Psychology of Market Cycles, and What the NIFTY Data Shows
Why investors buy after rallies and sell after crashes: FOMO, herding, recency bias and loss aversion, the stages of a market cycle, and NIFTY 2019-2026 data on returns after hot and fearful periods.
How Much Do You Need to Retire Early in India? The FIRE Corpus, Calculated Honestly
How to calculate a financial independence (FIRE) corpus for India: why the US 4% rule is risky here, corpus multiples at different withdrawal rates, the SIP needed to get there, and what the plan must cover beyond the number.
How to Improve Your CIBIL Score: Fix Errors, Handle "Settled" Accounts and Rebuild Credit
A step-by-step guide to improving a credit score in India: reading your report, disputing errors (with RBI's 30-day deadline and ₹100-a-day compensation), why "settled" hurts, utilisation, and rebuilding with secured credit.
How to Read a Company's Balance Sheet: Ratios and Red Flags for Indian Investors
A practical guide to reading an Indian company's balance sheet with a worked two-year example: debt-to-equity, current ratio, ROE, ROCE, interest cover, working-capital days, cash flow vs profit, and the red flags that matter.
Index Funds vs Active Mutual Funds in India: What the SPIVA Scorecard and Costs Tell Us
Do active large-cap funds beat the index in India? What SPIVA India Year-End 2025 shows, why costs make it hard, where active funds have a better case, and how to pick an index fund.
Position Sizing and Risk of Ruin: The Maths That Decides Whether a Trader Survives
Why the amount you risk per trade matters more than your entry signal: losing-streak probabilities, a 10,000-trader simulation of drawdowns at 1% to 10% risk per trade, the position-size formula, and the Kelly criterion.
Sovereign Gold Bonds in 2026: What Holders Should Know After Budget 2026, and How to Own Gold Now
No new SGBs have been issued since February 2024, and Budget 2026 narrowed the tax exemption to original subscribers holding to maturity. What existing holders and secondary-market buyers should do, and how gold ETFs and funds compare.
Step-Up SIP: Why Raising Your SIP Every Year Beats a Bigger Starting Amount
How a step-up (top-up) SIP works, what raising your SIP by 5%, 10% or 15% a year does to a 20-year corpus, how it keeps pace with salary and inflation, and how to set one up.
Term Insurance vs Endowment and ULIP Plans: The Real Numbers Behind "Buy Term, Invest the Rest"
Why pure term insurance gives far more cover for the money than endowment or ULIP plans, how much cover you need, a 20-year buy-term-and-invest comparison, and the 2026 GST and tax rules.
The 50/30/20 Budget Rule, Adapted for Indian Incomes and City Living
How the 50/30/20 budget rule works, why it often needs adjusting in Indian metros, worked budgets for ₹40,000, ₹80,000 and ₹1.5 lakh take-home pay, an EMI limit, and a simple way to stick to it.
Topics we cover
Investing & Mutual Funds
SIPs, index funds, costs, asset allocation and how to read a company.
Tax Planning
Income tax regimes, capital gains and tax-saving products, updated for FY 2026-27.
Trading & Risk
Position sizing, options basics, backtesting and the psychology of markets.