What changed, and what it means
Rule changes, tax updates and analysis of the data. The lessons explain how investing works. These explain what just happened.
The finfluencer rules, and how to tell research from marketing
The rules changed enough that a competent creator now looks visibly different from a tip seller. Here is what to look for.
6 August 2026 · 6 min
Rule changesSEBI nomination rules change on 1 September 2026
The paperwork got substantially lighter and the requirement got firmer. Both changes take effect in under a month.
4 August 2026 · 5 min
PracticalYour first Rs 10,000: a worked plan
Not a general guide. One amount, one person, and the actual decisions, including the ones that mean not investing it yet.
1 August 2026 · 5 min
PracticalReading a mutual fund factsheet, line by line
The returns table is the least useful part of the document and the only part most people look at.
30 July 2026 · 5 min
Data explainedWhat SEBI FY25 derivatives study actually shows
Everyone quotes the 91%. Almost nobody quotes the number that follows it, which is the one that should settle the argument.
28 July 2026 · 6 min
Data explainedT+0 settlement exists. Almost nobody uses it.
India moved faster than almost any market in the world on settlement, then discovered that speed was not what most investors wanted.
24 July 2026 · 5 min
ArgumentAll-time highs are not a reason to wait
A rising index spends a surprising amount of its life near a record. That is what rising means.
21 July 2026 · 5 min
Rule changesYour mutual fund costs changed on 1 April 2026
The first complete rewrite of India mutual fund rules since 1996. Most coverage led with the fee cut. The more useful change is what you can now see.
20 July 2026 · 6 min
PracticalWhy your SIP shows a loss after two years
The most common question from people two years into their first SIP, and the answer that almost nobody finds satisfying.
16 July 2026 · 5 min
Rule changesSovereign Gold Bonds are over. What now?
India had the best gold product in the world for retail investors. It has quietly ended, and the tax treatment of existing bonds changed too.
12 July 2026 · 6 min
PracticalYour employer offered NPS in your salary. Should you take it?
Most salaried people on the new regime have exactly one meaningful tax lever left, and many do not know their payroll team can pull it.
10 July 2026 · 5 min
PracticalReading a contract note, line by line
The single most useful document your broker sends you, and the one people delete unread.
8 July 2026 · 5 min
PracticalBonus, split, rights and buyback: what they do to your holding
Your share count doubles and the price halves. Nothing happened. Understanding why saves you from acting on things that are not events.
2 July 2026 · 6 min
Rule changesSection 80C is now Section 123, and other things that changed
A reorganisation rather than a reform. But there is one timing detail that most coverage is getting wrong, and it affects the return you file this month.
30 June 2026 · 5 min
ArgumentThe case against holding twelve mutual funds
Almost every portfolio that has been running for five years has this problem, and almost nobody notices because each individual purchase seemed sensible at the time.
25 June 2026 · 5 min
PracticalWhat to do with a lump sum
The question people ask is lump sum or SIP. The question that decides the answer is a different one entirely.
20 June 2026 · 5 min
PracticalThe Rs 1.25 lakh exemption most investors waste every year
It resets on 1 April and vanishes on 31 March. Most long term investors never touch it, which quietly costs them.
18 June 2026 · 5 min
Data explainedDerivatives STT rose 150 percent. Here is the arithmetic.
A change of three hundredths of a percentage point sounds trivial. Applied to contract values of Rs 15 to 20 lakh, it is not.
11 June 2026 · 5 min
ArgumentWhy index funds beat most active funds, as arithmetic
You do not need a performance study to make this argument. You need one sentence of arithmetic, and then the honest counterarguments.
5 June 2026 · 6 min
ArgumentEvery investing story you hear has survivorship bias
The distortion is not that the stories are false. It is that the failures are silent, so your sense of the odds is built from the wrong sample.
4 June 2026 · 5 min
PracticalEmergency fund or repay the loan? The arithmetic
The answer depends almost entirely on the interest rate, and on one thing that no interest rate captures.
28 May 2026 · 5 min
PracticalReading a quarterly result: a worked example
An illustrative company, not a real one, so the method is visible without it turning into a recommendation.
22 May 2026 · 6 min
ArgumentSmall cap or large cap: what you are actually choosing
Small caps are usually described in terms of higher growth and higher risk. That is true and it leaves out the part that actually hurts people.
15 May 2026 · 5 min
An article tells you what changed. A lesson tells you what to do.
Forty two lessons, free and open, written in simple English.