Educational Articles
The concepts you keep
getting wrong — explained.
Price action, candlestick charts, NSE market structure, operator traps, backtesting — the ideas from the Drishti Series, written for the Indian retail trader who is tired of losing to patterns they can’t name.
Understanding a concept is the first step. The books are where you learn to apply it under real conditions.
For educational purposes only. Not investment advice. Profitma is not a SEBI-registered investment adviser.
Book 1 · The Honest Beginner · 4 min read
What is Price Action Trading?
Price action trading means reading a stock's raw price movement — without relying on lagging indicators. Here is what it means in the context of Indian markets.
Book 1 · The Honest Beginner · 5 min read
How to Read Candlestick Charts on NSE
A candlestick shows four data points: open, high, low, and close. Understanding what each candle is telling you — before adding any indicator — is the first skill in price reading.
Book 1 · The Honest Beginner · 4 min read
Support and Resistance in Indian Stock Markets
Support and resistance are price levels where buying or selling pressure has historically been strong enough to reverse or pause a move. Here is how they work on NSE and BSE.
Book 2 · The Confident Reader · 5 min read
NSE Weekly F&O Expiry — What Retail Traders Need to Know
Every Thursday, Nifty 50 and Bank Nifty weekly options expire on NSE. This creates predictable patterns in index and options pricing that retail traders often misread.
Book 2 · The Confident Reader · 5 min read
Why Backtesting Matters for Indian Traders
A pattern that looks good on a chart is not an edge until it has been tested against historical data. Here is what backtesting is, and why it is especially important in Indian markets.
Book 2 · The Confident Reader · 7 min read
Why 9 in 10 F&O Traders Lose Money — The SEBI Data Explained
SEBI studied 45 lakh individual F&O traders and found 89% incurred net losses. Here is what the data actually says, why it happens, and what the 11% who profit do differently.
Book 8 · The Market Philosopher · 7 min read
What is FOMO in Trading — and Why It Keeps Costing You
FOMO — Fear of Missing Out — is the emotional pressure to enter a trade because price is already moving and you are not in it. Here is exactly why these trades fail, and what to do instead.
Book 6 · The System Architect · 6 min read
Position Sizing — How Much Capital to Risk Per Trade on NSE
Most retail traders think in shares or lots. Position sizing asks a different question: how much of your account are you willing to lose if this trade is wrong? Here is the framework and the calculation.
Book 4 · The Business Reader · 6 min read
Bull Traps and Bear Traps — How Operators Engineer Them on NSE
A bull trap breaks above resistance to attract buyers — then reverses. A bear trap breaks below support to attract sellers — then reverses. Here is the mechanics, the NSE context, and how to avoid being caught.
Book 2 · The Confident Reader · 8 min read
How to Read an Option Chain on NSE
The option chain shows OI, volume, IV, and bid-ask across every strike for Nifty and BankNifty. Here is how to read it — from OI buildup at support and resistance to PCR and IV crush.
Book 8 · The Market Philosopher · 7 min read
Why You Break Your Own Trading Rules — and How to Stop
Trading rules are written in calm. They break under pressure. Here is the psychology behind rule-breaking, the structural difference between rules that hold and rules that don't, and what to do instead.
Book 3 · The Value Detective · 8 min read
How to Read an Annual Report for Indian Stocks
The annual report is the most complete, verified document about any listed Indian company — and most retail investors never read it. Here is what to look at, in what order, and which red flags matter most.
Book 3 · The Value Detective · 6 min read
What Promoter Holding Tells You About an Indian Stock
Promoter holding is the most watched number in India's quarterly shareholding disclosure. Here is what high holding, declining holding, and pledged shares each signal — and where to find the data.
Book 7 · The Complete Trader · 6 min read
How to Keep a Trading Journal That Actually Improves Your Trading
Most trading journals record results. The useful ones record thinking. Here is what to capture, how to structure the weekly review, and why the emotion field is the most important column in the log.
Book 6 · The System Architect · 7 min read
Risk-Reward Ratio in Trading — What It Actually Means on NSE
Risk-reward ratio compares potential loss to potential profit on a trade. Here is how to calculate it correctly, how it interacts with win rate, and why your target must come from market structure — not arithmetic.
Book 5 · The Signal Builder · 9 min read
How to Backtest a Trading Strategy on NSE Data
Backtesting applies your trading rules to historical data to see how the strategy would have performed. Here is where to get NSE data, which metrics matter, and the three errors that invalidate a backtest.
Book 5 · The Signal Builder · 7 min read
What is a Trading Edge — and How to Know If You Have One
A trading edge is a statistical advantage that produces positive expectancy across many trades. Here is the formal definition, where edge actually comes from, and how long it takes to know if you have one.
Go Deeper
These articles are the surface.
The books are the foundation.
The Drishti Mastery Series covers all of this in depth — with the full context, case studies, and exercises that short articles cannot include. Book 1 is completely free.
Start Reading Book 1 Free →