Market Basics

Electronic trading
Electronic trading eliminates the need for physical trading floors. Brokers can trade from their offices, using fully automated screen-based processes. Their workstations are connected to a Stock Exchange's central computer via satellite using Very Small Aperture Terminus (VSATs). The orders placed by brokers reach the Exchange's central computer and are matched electronically.

Exchanges in India
The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) are the country's two leading Exchanges. There are 20 other regional Exchanges, connected via the Inter-Connected Stock Exchange (ICSE). The BSE and NSE allow nationwide trading via their VSAT systems.

Index
An Index is a comprehensive measure of market trends, intended for investors who are concerned with general stock market price movements. An Index comprises stocks that have large liquidity and market capitalization. Each stock is given a weight age in the Index equivalent to its market capitalization. At the NSE, the capitalization of NIFTY (fifty selected stocks) is taken as a base capitalization, with the value set at 1000. Similarly, BSE Sensitive Index or Sensex comprises 30 selected stocks. The Index value compares the day's market capitalization vis-à-vis base capitalization and indicates how prices in general have moved over a period of time.

Execute an order
Select a broker of your choice and enter into a broker-client agreement and fill in the client registration form. Place your order with your broker preferably in writing. Get a trade confirmation slip on the day the trade is executed and ask for the contract note at the end of the trade date.

Need a broker
As per SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India.) regulations, only registered members can operate in the stock market. One can trade by executing a deal only through a registered broker of a recognized Stock Exchange or through a SEBI-registered sub-broker.

Contract note
A contract note describes the rate, date, time at which the trade was transacted and the brokerage rate. A contract note issued in the prescribed format establishes a legally enforceable relationship between the client and the member in respect of trades stated in the contract note. These are made in duplicate and the member and the client both keep a copy each. A client should receive the contract note within 24 hours of the executed trade. Corporate Benefits/Action.

Split
A Split is book entry wherein the face value of the share is altered to create a greater number of shares outstanding without calling for fresh capital or altering the share capital account. For example, if a company announces a two-way split, it means that a share of the face value of Rs 10 is split into two shares of face value of Rs 5 each and a person holding one share now holds two shares.

Buy Back
As the name suggests, it is a process by which a company can buy back its shares from shareholders. A company may buy back its shares in various ways: from existing shareholders on a proportionate basis; through a tender offer from open market; through a book-building process; from the Stock Exchange; or from odd lot holders.

A company cannot buy back through negotiated deals on or off the Stock Exchange, through spot transactions or through any private arrangement.

Settlement cycle
The accounting period for the securities traded on the Exchange. On the NSE, the cycle begins on Wednesday and ends on the following Tuesday, and on the BSE the cycle commences on Monday and ends on Friday. At the end of this period, the obligations of each broker are calculated and the brokers settle their respective obligations as per the rules, bye-laws and regulations of the Clearing Corporation. If a transaction is entered on the first day of the settlement, the same will be settled on the eighth working day excluding the day of transaction. However, if the same is done on the last day of the settlement, it will be settled on the fourth working day excluding the day of transaction.

Rolling settlement
The rolling settlement ensures that each day's trade is settled by keeping a fixed gap of a specified number of working days between a trade and its settlement. At present, this gap is five working days after the trading day. The waiting period is uniform for all trades. In a Rolling Settlement, all trades outstanding at end of the day have to be settled, which means that the buyer has to make payments for securities purchased and seller has to deliver the securities sold. In India, we have adopted the T+5 settlement cycle, which means that a transaction entered into on Day 1 has to be settled on the Day 1 + 5 working days, when funds pay in or securities pay out takes place.


What are the advantages of Rolling Settlements?

As mentioned earlier, this is the system practiced in developed countries. Pay outs are quicker than in weekly settlements, and investors will benefit from increased liquidity. The other benefit of the modified system is that it keeps cash and forward markets separate. In the current system, the trader has five days to square off his transaction which leads to a high level of speculation as people even without funds tend to "play" the market. During volatile markets, especially in a bearish market, this often leads to a payment problem which has dogged the Indian stock exchanges for a long time. It provides for a higher degree of safety, and once mechanisms such as futures and stock-lending become popular, it would result in quality speculation and genuine investor interest.

When does one deliver the shares and pay the money to broker?

As a seller, in order to ensure smooth settlement you should deliver the shares to your broker immediately after getting the contract note for sale but in any case before the pay-in day. Similarly, as a buyer, one should pay immediately on the receipt of the contract note for purchase but in any case before the pay-in day.

Short selling
Short selling is a legitimate trading strategy. It is a sale of a security that the seller does not own, or any sale that is completed by the delivery of a security borrowed by the seller. Short sellers take the risk that they will be able to buy the stock at a more favorable price than the price at which they "sold short."

The selling of a security that the seller does not own, or any sale that is completed by the delivery of a security borrowed by the seller, Short sellers assume that they will be able to buy the stock at a lower amount than the price at which they sold short.

Auction
An auction is conducted for those securities that members fail to deliver/short deliver during pay-in. Three factors primarily give rise to an auction: short deliveries, un-rectified bad deliveries, and un-rectified company objections

Separate market for auctions
The buy/sell auction for a capital market security is managed through the auction market. As opposed to the normal market where trade matching is an on-going process, the trade matching process for auction starts after the auction period is over.

If the shares are not bought in the auction
If the shares are not bought at the auction i.e. if the shares are not offered for sale, the Exchange squares up the transaction as per SEBI guidelines. The transaction is squared up at the highest price from the relevant trading period till the auction day or at 20 per cent above the last available Closing price whichever is higher. The pay-in and pay-out of funds for auction square up is held along with the pay-out for the relevant auction.

Bad Delivery
SEBI has formulated uniform guidelines for good and bad delivery of documents. Bad delivery may pertain to a transfer deed being torn, mutilated, overwritten, defaced, or if there are spelling mistakes in the name of the company or the transfer. Bad delivery exists only when shares are transferred physically. In "Demat" bad delivery does not exist.