Introduction to the Stock Market

Welcome to Espresso Bootcamp, the stock-market learning course that is designed to teach you skills that we hope will help you improve your trading and investing game.

Most of us are aware that interest in the stock market is on the rise. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many new investors – big and small alike – have started dabbling in the market. What many don’t know is that to succeed, besides an understanding of technical aspects (such as charts and financial statements), one needs hard work, patience and a sound temperament. This course will equip you with not just the technical skills but also teach you strategies that will help you cultivate the soft skills required to do well.

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What is the stock market?

We will save the nitty-gritties of the markets for the subsequent chapters but it is likely that you know that shares of companies are listed on the stock exchange, and there are indexes such as Nifty and Sensex, which tell you whether the market is up or down (or flat) over a particular period.

Market participants buy and sell shares of these companies for various periods of time ranging from minutes or hours to months or years with the aim of profiting from their movement or avoiding a loss.

There are two approaches that such participants take. Some buy and hold companies for long periods -- the idea is that over time, the value of the shares will appreciate in line with their profit growth. Such participants are generally called ‘investors’. The aim of investing is to generate long-term wealth. Investors will need to understand fundamentals of companies and sectors, and exercise patience.

And then there are ‘traders’ who basically speculate on prices on various stocks and other assets. Such speculation is informed by views they develop through various tools, such as understanding a stock’s price movement. This is because in the short term, earnings and prices don’t have a strong correlation, and evaluating the movement of prices itself becomes a signal of future potential price.

Participants can choose to become traders or investors or both depending on their understanding of the factors that affect prices in the short and long term, risk appetite, goals and time they can give to the market.

As we will go along, we will learn about principles, tools and techniques that will help you grow in your journey in the stock market.

Espresso Bootcamp: Key features

When we decided to build a stock-market course, we reached out to various participants in order to understand their needs.

We discovered that the avenues that currently offer learning on the Internet suffer from one of the following problems -- they are either expensive, not well-structured, offer learning in a single language or they rely upon only text or video as their medium of communication.

Espresso Bootcamp is the culmination of an effort to solve all the above problems: a multilingual (spanning English and Hindi), multimedia (text chapters, video, audio and infographics) course that will allow you to assimilate stock-market knowledge in multiple ways. All chapters are organized in thematic modules that will allow you to absorb a key aspect of your learning journey one at a time.

That’s not all. When the Bootcamp launch is over, we will introduce several other features to keep you hooked. There’s a quiz at the end of every chapter to appraise your understanding of the concepts learned. There’s also a test at the end of every module, clearing which will earn you a certificate.

The course is completely free – though in some places, we may require you to log in to fully access all features.

How the course is structured

We started out by reaching out to market veterans Vivek Gadodia, Santosh Pasi and Vishal Mehta and got them to help us outline the course structure. They also provided inputs on individual chapters and suggested concepts that they would like to be incorporated. Our experts also approved all the chapters once they were written.

The modules start by giving you an introduction to the markets and the world of trading. Then we take a pause and take you through what it takes to be a long-term investor. Thereafter, we start with technical analysis (the study of charts), before diving into the complex-yet-alluring world of futures and options. We wind up by summarizing all the key learnings in effective trading strategies. Don’t miss out on the last module, which will underline the importance of understanding market psychology.

Besides, Bootcamp also has a blog section where we will discuss topics not covered through the course – these could be in the realm of explainers or updates on ongoing news, events and trends in the market.

Finally, we would like to know your feedback – so please fire in your views for each of the chapters as soon as we make the comment box available.

We hope you take away a lot from the course! We will consider our effort  well-rewarded when you interact with us, share our material on your social media, and subscribe to our channels. If the course helps you, pass on the good word to your friends and let them benefit from it. 

Good luck!