Altys ResearchIndia, in the numbers
See past the headline.
Research, methods, and data-led stories for people who want to understand what a number is really saying before they act on it.
Featured research
Fresh from the Altys data desk
Latest insights
295 stories in the research library
-
Benchmark Selection for Portfolios: How the Wrong Benchmark Invents Alpha
Choosing a benchmark is not administrative. The benchmark defines what counts as skill, so a mismatched one manufactures alpha or hides it. Here is how to select one properly.
Read article -
Best and Worst Month Analysis: What Extreme Months Reveal About Risk
Best month and worst month are the largest single-month gain and loss in a strategy's history. They expose the tails that averages and volatility figures quietly smooth away.
Read article -
Best Backtesting Platforms in India: A Fair Roundup
A neutral guide to backtesting platforms available in India, the categories they fall into, and the four things to check before you trust any backtest result.
Read article -
Quant Investing Platforms in India: A Fair Roundup
A neutral guide to quant and rule-based investing platforms in India, what each category is built for, and how to work out which one fits your job.
Read article -
Building a Factor Scorecard: Turning Definitions Into a Repeatable Score
A factor scorecard converts factor definitions into one comparable number per stock. Here is how to build one that is precise, point-in-time, and honest about what it cannot see.
Read article -
Building an Exit Framework: How a Rules-Based Sell Discipline Is Designed
An exit framework is the written set of conditions under which a position is reviewed or reduced. Here is how one is designed, documented and reviewed, without prescribing any rule.
Read article -
Bulk and Block Deals Explained: What the Data Shows and What It Hides
Bulk and block deals are large exchange-disclosed trades in Indian stocks. Here is what each one is, how the disclosure regime works, and how to read the data honestly.
Read article -
Buy and Hold vs Strategy Returns: The Baseline Every Backtest Must Beat
Buy and hold return is the benchmark result you would have earned doing nothing. It is the honest baseline for any strategy, and it is a hard bar to clear.
Read article -
CAGR vs XIRR vs Absolute Returns: Which One Is Correct?
Absolute return measures total change, CAGR annualises a single lumpsum, and XIRR annualises a series of irregular cashflows. Cashflow timing decides which is correct.
Read article -
Common Backtesting Mistakes That Make Results Look Better Than Reality
The most common backtesting mistakes are future information leaking into past decisions, survivorship in the universe, ignored costs, and testing so many variations that something looks good by luck.
Read article -
Concentration Risk in Portfolios: Measuring It by Position, Sector and Factor
Concentration risk is the exposure that comes from too much of a portfolio depending on one thing. It is measured at position, sector and factor level, and the three disagree.
Read article -
Corporate Actions and Adjusted Prices: Why Price History Must Be Restated
Splits, bonuses, rights issues and dividends change the share count or pay cash out, so raw price history breaks. Here is how adjustment works and where it still misleads.
Read article -
Correlation Matrix in Portfolios: How to Read One, and Why Correlations Rise in a Crisis
A correlation matrix shows how closely each pair of holdings moves together. Reading one well means watching the pairs, the period, and how correlations behave under stress.
Read article -
Diversification: How Many Stocks Does a Portfolio Need?
Diversification research shows stock-specific risk falls sharply with the first several holdings and slowly after that, but the count alone never determines how diversified a portfolio is.
Read article -
Downside Deviation Explained: Measuring Only the Volatility That Hurts
Downside deviation measures how far returns fall below a chosen minimum, ignoring upside variation entirely. It is the denominator that makes the Sortino ratio different from Sharpe.
Read article -
Drawdown Recovery Analysis: Underwater Curves and the Arithmetic of Losses
Drawdown recovery analysis measures how long a portfolio stays below its previous peak, not just how far it fell, because time underwater is what investors actually endure.
Read article -
Equal Weight vs Market-Cap Weight: Two Default Schemes, Two Different Portfolios
Equal weight and market-cap weight are the two default weighting schemes. They hold the same names but produce very different size tilts, turnover and concentration.
Read article -
Expense Ratio Impact on Returns: The Arithmetic of a Recurring Fee
The expense ratio is deducted daily from NAV, so it never appears as a bill. Over long horizons the drag compounds. Here is the arithmetic, shown neutrally, and its limits.
Read article -
Factor Crowding Explained: When Too Much Money Chases the Same Signal
Factor crowding is what happens when many investors hold the same factor exposure at once. It raises valuations, correlates positions, and makes unwinds sharper.
Read article -
Factor Cyclicality and Drawdowns: Sizing for the Droughts
Factors go through long periods of underperformance. Factor cyclicality analysis measures how deep and how long those droughts run, so position sizing and governance can survive them.
Read article -
Factor Exposure Analysis: What Your Portfolio Is Actually Exposed To
Factor exposure analysis measures which characteristics, such as value, quality, momentum or size, actually drive a portfolio, using holdings-based scores or returns-based regression.
Read article -
Factor Investing in India: What Factors Are and How They Are Measured
Factor investing groups stocks by measurable characteristics such as value, momentum, quality, size and low volatility, then studies how those groups behave over time.
Read article -
FII and DII Flows Explained: Who They Are and What the Data Shows
FII and DII flow data records what foreign and domestic institutions bought and sold each day in India's cash market. Who they are, where it is published, and its limits.
Read article -
Free Float Market Cap Explained: Why Indices Use It
Free float market cap counts only the shares available to public investors, excluding promoter and locked-in holdings. Indices use it so weights reflect what is actually investable.
Read article -
Gross Profit and Loss, Explained: What Sits Between Gross and Net
Gross P&L is the raw result of trades before costs. Net P&L is what reaches the account. The gap is brokerage, taxes, exchange charges, slippage and financing, and it is not small.
Read article -
How Indian Stock Indices Are Constructed
Index construction in India follows a published rulebook: an eligible universe, a selection rule, free float market cap weighting, a divisor, and a periodic review cycle.
Read article -
How Often Should You Rebalance a Portfolio?
Rebalancing frequency is a trade-off, not a rule. Calendar, threshold and hybrid schedules explained, with the costs, turnover and tax drag each one carries.
Read article -
How to Backtest a Stock Strategy in India: An End-to-End Walkthrough
Backtesting a stock strategy in India means testing explicit rules on historical data that was actually knowable at each date, with realistic costs, a fair benchmark, and honest reporting.
Read article -
How to Identify Momentum Stocks: The Measurement Method
Momentum is identified by ranking a defined universe on risk-adjusted past return over a fixed lookback window. Here is the measurement method, step by step, with no lists.
Read article -
How to Read a Backtest Report
Read a backtest report in reverse order: setup and assumptions first, then risk and turnover, and the return figure last. Here is the sequence and the red flags.
Read article -
How to Read an RRG Chart: A Practical Method and Its Limits
Read an RRG in a fixed order: check the benchmark and universe first, then quadrant position, then tail direction and length, and only then form a view.
Read article -
How to Use FII and DII Data Without Over-Reading It
FII and DII flow data is best used as slow context on ownership, not as a daily signal. A method for framing the question, choosing the dataset, and testing claims honestly.
Read article -
In-Sample vs Out-of-Sample Testing: The Minimum Honest Backtest Check
In-sample data is where a strategy is built and tuned. Out-of-sample data is held back and used once to judge it. Splitting the two is the least you can do to avoid fooling yourself.
Read article -
Index Funds vs ETFs in India: Structure, Tracking and Costs
Index funds and ETFs can track the same index but differ in how you transact, how price relates to NAV, what you pay, and where tracking difference comes from.
Read article -
Index Rebalancing Explained: Reviews, Inclusions and Exclusions
Index rebalancing is the scheduled process where a provider re-applies its rules, updates constituents and weights, and index funds trade to match. Here is the mechanism and its effects.
Read article -
Insider Trading Disclosures in India: What SAST and PIT Filings Actually Show
Insider disclosures are mandatory filings of trades by promoters, directors and designated persons under SEBI's PIT and SAST regimes, published through the stock exchanges.
Read article -
An IPO Analysis Framework: How to Read a DRHP Section by Section
A structured framework for analysing an Indian IPO from its DRHP: what each section contains, what to extract, and where the document is designed to be least informative.
Read article -
Kalpi Alternatives for Deep Fundamental Research in India
Kalpi is an India-focused platform for building, backtesting and running rule-based baskets. Here is where it fits, and a research-first alternative for professional desks.
Read article -
Liquidity Constraints in Backtesting: Why a Paper Strategy Cannot Always Be Filled
Liquidity constraints decide whether a backtested trade could actually have happened. A guide to volume caps, capacity, thin stocks and the filters that keep a test honest.
Read article -
Market Breadth Indicators: A Health Check on a Rally, and Its Limits
Market breadth measures how many stocks are participating in a market move rather than how far the index went. What the main breadth indicators are, how they are built, and where they mislead.
Read article -
Momentum Investing in India: How It Is Practised, and Where It Hurts
Momentum investing buys what has already been going up, on a rule rather than a view. Here is how momentum is defined, how it is run in India, and its real risks.
Read article -
Monte Carlo Simulation in Investing: What It Adds and Where It Breaks
Monte Carlo simulation runs thousands of randomised paths to turn uncertain inputs into a distribution of outcomes, and inherits every flaw in the assumptions behind it.
Read article -
Multi-Factor Investing Explained: Blending vs Integrating
Multi-factor investing combines several return drivers such as value, quality, momentum and low volatility into one portfolio, either by blending sleeves or by integrating scores.
Read article -
Nifty 50 vs Nifty 500: Coverage, Concentration and What Each Represents
The Nifty 50 holds 50 large, highly liquid companies. The Nifty 500 covers 500. One is a headline gauge, the other a broad market proxy, and their concentration differs sharply.
Read article -
PMS vs Mutual Funds vs Stock Baskets: Structure, Costs and Transparency
PMS, mutual funds and stock baskets differ in who legally holds the securities, minimum size, fee structure, tax treatment and disclosure. An even-handed structural comparison.
Read article -
Portfolio Construction Basics: From an Idea List to an Actual Portfolio
Portfolio construction is the step that turns a list of researched ideas into weights, constraints and a rebalancing rule. Here is what each decision does and what it costs.
Read article -
Portfolio Dividend Yield: How It Is Computed and What It Does Not Promise
Portfolio dividend yield is the income a portfolio's holdings paid over the past year, divided by portfolio value. It is a backward-looking ratio, not a promised rate.
Read article -
Portfolio Drawdown Management: Planning for Losses Before They Happen
Drawdown management is the discipline of deciding in advance how a portfolio responds to losses. Here is how teams size, document and stress-test that plan before it is needed.
Read article -
Portfolio and Backtest Metrics, Explained: The Complete Guide
A plain-language guide to the metrics behind portfolio and strategy analysis: risk-adjusted returns, drawdown, factors, backtesting, and the market data behind them.
Read article -
Portfolio P/E and P/B Ratio: How Portfolio Valuation Is Aggregated
Portfolio P/E and P/B summarise how expensive a whole portfolio looks. The aggregation method, weighted average versus harmonic versus aggregate, changes the answer materially.
Read article -
Portfolio Review Checklist: A Structure for the Periodic Review
A portfolio review checklist is a fixed agenda run at a set interval covering records, positions, structure, performance and process, so every review asks the same questions.
Read article -
Portfolio Turnover Explained: What Drives It, and What It Costs
Portfolio turnover measures how much of a portfolio was traded over a year. It drives transaction costs and the timing of taxable gains, so it belongs next to every return figure.
Read article -
Position Sizing Methods: Equal Weight, Conviction Weight and Risk Parity
Position sizing decides how much capital each holding gets. Equal weight, conviction weight and risk parity are the main methods, and each buys a different trade-off.
Read article -
Quant Investing in India: The State of It, Plainly
Quant investing means decisions driven by measured data and explicit models. Here is what that looks like in India today, the data realities, and the honest limits.
Read article -
Quant Research Tools for PMS and AIF Desks: What Changes at Institutional Scale
PMS, AIF and family office desks need point-in-time fundamentals, source-linked auditability, compliance-ready reporting and team workflow, not just a retail quant toolkit.
Read article -
Rebalancing Frequency and Backtest Results: How Often You Trade Changes What You Measure
Rebalancing frequency changes turnover, cost and signal decay all at once. A guide to why backtest results move with frequency and how to test frequency without fooling yourself.
Read article -
Rebalancing Methods Compared: The Mechanics of Each Approach
Rebalancing methods compared: full restore to target, band-edge trades, cashflow rebalancing, buy-only tilts and risk-based schemes, with the mechanics and trade-offs of each.
Read article -
Relative Rotation Graph (RRG) Explained: The Four Quadrants, RS-Ratio and RS-Momentum
A Relative Rotation Graph plots securities against a common benchmark on two axes, relative strength and the momentum of that relative strength, sorting them into four quadrants.
Read article -
Relative Strength Explained: Measuring Performance Against a Benchmark
Relative strength compares a security's performance to a benchmark rather than to zero. Here is how the ratio is computed, how it differs from absolute momentum, and its limits.
Read article -
Risk Adjusted Returns Explained: Why Raw Return Is Never the Whole Answer
A risk adjusted return measures how much return was earned per unit of risk taken. It exists because two portfolios with the same return can involve completely different risk.
Read article -
Rolling Returns Explained: Why They Beat Point-to-Point Returns
Rolling returns measure performance over every possible window of a chosen length, not one start and end date. They expose consistency that a single headline number hides.
Read article -
Rule-Based Investing Platforms Compared: The Axes That Actually Matter
A fair comparison of India's rule-based and systematic investing platforms, including Kalpi and smallcase, on data depth, point-in-time history, backtest realism, execution and audience.
Read article -
Scenario Analysis Explained: Building Coherent Futures, Not One Forecast
Scenario analysis replaces a single point forecast with a small set of internally consistent futures, each with its own assumptions, so you can see how a view breaks.
Read article -
Seasonality Analysis in Indian Markets: What the Studies Show and What They Hide
Seasonality analysis measures average returns by calendar period. In Indian markets the patterns are real in the sample but fragile out of it, and the data-mining risk is severe.
Read article -
Sector Rotation Strategy in India: How Rotation Is Measured and Analysed
Sector rotation is the observation that leadership moves between sectors over time. This is how rotation is measured in Indian markets, and where the analysis breaks down.
Read article -
Sensitivity Analysis Explained: Which Assumption Actually Moves the Answer
Sensitivity analysis changes one input at a time to see how much the output moves, revealing which assumptions carry a model and which barely matter at all.
Read article -
Sharpe vs Sortino vs Calmar: Which Risk-Adjusted Ratio Answers Which Question?
Sharpe, Sortino and Calmar all divide return by risk, but each defines risk differently: total volatility, downside volatility, and worst peak-to-trough loss.
Read article -
Short-Term vs Long-Term Capital Gains in India: The Structure, Explained
Indian tax law splits capital gains into short-term and long-term based on holding period, and taxes them differently. Here is how that structure works, in plain language.
Read article -
Slippage and Impact Cost: The Gap Between the Modelled Price and the Real One
Slippage is the difference between the price a backtest assumes and the price a trade actually gets. A guide to spread, delay and market impact, and how to model each.
Read article -
Smart Beta Funds in India: What They Are and How to Evaluate One
Smart beta funds track a rules-based index built on factors like value, momentum, quality or low volatility. Here is the Indian menu and how to assess one honestly.
Read article -
SPIVA India Explained: What the Scorecard Measures and How to Read It
SPIVA compares active fund returns against a designated benchmark index, corrected for survivorship and measured net of fees. Here is the methodology and its honest limits.
Read article -
Stock Basket Platforms in India: How the Category Works
Stock baskets let you buy a themed or rule-based portfolio of shares held in your own demat account. Here is how the category works, who the main platforms are, and what to check.
Read article -
Stress Testing a Portfolio: Historical and Hypothetical Shocks
Stress testing asks what a portfolio would do under a severe but conceivable shock, using either a replayed historical episode or a designed hypothetical one.
Read article -
Survivorship Bias in Backtests: Why Today's Index Lies About the Past
Survivorship bias is testing a strategy on companies that survived to today. Delisted, merged, and dropped names disappear from the sample, so historical results improve for reasons unrelated to the strategy.
Read article -
Systematic vs Discretionary Investing: An Honest Comparison
Systematic investing applies a fixed rule to every case; discretionary investing judges each case on its merits. Here is what each is genuinely good and bad at.
Read article -
Tax on Portfolio Rebalancing in India: How the Cost Actually Works
Rebalancing means selling, and selling in India creates a capital gains event. Here is how the tax structure, transaction charges and lot accounting turn a portfolio adjustment into a real cost.
Read article -
Total Return Index vs Price Index: Why TRI Is the Fair Comparison
A price index tracks only price movement. A total return index adds dividends back in. Comparing a fund's returns to a price index quietly overstates its performance.
Read article -
Tracking a Model Portfolio: Model Versus Actual, Drift and Record-Keeping
A model portfolio is the intended holdings on paper. Tracking it means keeping a dated record of the model, comparing it with actual accounts, and explaining every gap.
Read article -
Transaction Costs in Backtests: Brokerage, STT, Stamp Duty and GST
Transaction costs turn a paper strategy into a real one. A guide to the categories of Indian trading cost, how to model them in a backtest, and how turnover multiplies the drag.
Read article -
Upside and Downside Capture Ratio, Explained
Upside and downside capture ratios measure how much of a benchmark's gains and losses a portfolio picked up. Read as a pair, they describe a portfolio's asymmetry.
Read article -
Volatility and Standard Deviation Explained: What They Really Measure
Volatility is the standard deviation of returns, a measure of how widely returns scatter around their average. It captures variability, which is not the same thing as risk.
Read article -
Walk-Forward Analysis Explained: Rolling Re-Estimation as a Stricter Test
Walk-forward analysis fits a strategy on a past window, applies it to the next unseen window, then rolls forward and repeats. It is a harder test than a single out-of-sample split.
Read article -
What-If Analysis in Financial Models: Structuring It So It Changes a Decision
What-if analysis tests how a model responds to changed assumptions. Done well it is decision useful, done badly it produces a wall of numbers nobody acts on.
Read article -
What Is Alpha in Investing? Return Beyond the Benchmark, Explained
Alpha is the return a portfolio earned beyond what its benchmark exposure and risk already explain. It is a residual, and it depends entirely on the benchmark chosen.
Read article -
What Is Beta in Investing? Sensitivity to the Market, Explained
Beta measures how much a stock or portfolio tends to move when the market moves. It is estimated by regression against an index and is routinely misread as a quality score.
Read article -
What Is CAGR? Compound Annual Growth Rate, Explained
CAGR is the compound annual growth rate: the single steady yearly rate that would take a starting value to an ending value. It smooths the path completely.
Read article -
What Is the Calmar Ratio? Return Measured Against Maximum Drawdown
The Calmar ratio divides annualised return by the worst peak-to-trough fall over the same period. It is a pain-adjusted measure of whether the return justified the depth.
Read article -
What Is the Information Ratio? Active Return per Unit of Tracking Error
The information ratio divides a portfolio's return above its benchmark by the volatility of that difference. It measures consistency of outperformance, not its size.
Read article -
What Is Maximum Drawdown? The Largest Peak to Trough Fall, Explained
Maximum drawdown is the largest fall from a portfolio's peak value to the lowest point that follows. It measures the worst loss an investor actually had to sit through.
Read article -
What Is Overfitting in Backtesting? Curve-Fitting, Parameters and How to Detect It
Overfitting in backtesting is tuning a strategy until it describes the noise in one sample of history rather than any durable pattern. It looks like a great result and behaves like a coin flip.
Read article -
What Is Profit Factor? Gross Profit Over Gross Loss, Explained
Profit factor is total gross profit from winning trades divided by total gross loss from losing trades. It shows how many rupees a strategy won per rupee it lost.
Read article -
What Is R-Squared in Investing? How Much of a Portfolio the Benchmark Explains
R-squared measures what share of a portfolio's return movement is explained by its benchmark. It runs from zero to one and decides whether alpha and beta mean anything.
Read article -
What Is Rule-Based Investing? Rules, Discretion, and What Rules Actually Buy You
Rule-based investing means the decision is made by a written rule applied consistently, not by judgement on the day. Here is what that buys you, and what it costs.
Read article -
What Is the Sharpe Ratio? Excess Return per Unit of Risk, Explained
The Sharpe ratio measures how much return a portfolio earned above the risk-free rate for each unit of total volatility it took on. Higher is generally better.
Read article -
What Is the Sortino Ratio? Return per Unit of Downside Risk
The Sortino ratio divides excess return by downside deviation instead of total volatility, so only losses count as risk. It is the fairer measure for asymmetric strategies.
Read article -
What Is the Low Volatility Factor? The Low Vol Anomaly, Explained
The low volatility factor tilts a portfolio towards steadier stocks. It exists because calmer shares have historically not been punished the way risk theory expected.
Read article -
What Is the Momentum Factor? Lookback Windows and Crash Risk
The momentum factor ranks stocks by their own past price trend over a lookback window, usually skipping the most recent month, and holds the strongest performers.
Read article -
What Is the Quality Factor? Profitability, Stability and Leverage
The quality factor ranks stocks on measurable business characteristics: profitability, earnings stability and balance sheet strength, then holds the highest scoring names.
Read article -
What Is the Size Factor? The Small Cap Premium and Its Caveats
The size factor tilts a portfolio towards smaller companies. The historical small cap premium is real in the data but heavily qualified by liquidity, survivorship and cost.
Read article -
What Is the Value Factor? Cheapness Measures and Value Traps
The value factor ranks stocks by how cheap the price looks against a fundamental anchor such as earnings, book value, sales or cash flow, then holds the cheapest slice.
Read article -
What Is Tracking Error? How Far a Portfolio Drifts From Its Benchmark
Tracking error measures how much a portfolio's returns vary from its benchmark's returns. It is the standard deviation of the return difference, usually stated per year.
Read article -
What Is the Treynor Ratio? Excess Return per Unit of Market Risk
The Treynor ratio divides excess return by beta rather than by total volatility, so it measures reward per unit of market risk alone. Useful for portfolios held inside a larger whole.
Read article -
What Is Value at Risk? VaR in Plain Language, and the Tail It Hides
Value at Risk estimates the loss a portfolio is unlikely to exceed over a set horizon at a set confidence level. Its famous weakness is what happens beyond that threshold.
Read article -
Why Active Funds Underperform Their Benchmarks
Active fund underperformance is mostly structural: the arithmetic of the average investor, layered costs, total return benchmarks, capacity limits, and how the comparison itself is built.
Read article -
Why Backtest Results Don't Repeat in Live Investing
Backtest results rarely repeat live because of overfitting, regime change, crowding, and the costs a test omits. Here is what actually causes the gap and what to expect.
Read article -
Win Rate in Investing: Why a High Hit Rate Can Still Lose Money
Win rate is the share of trades or positions that ended in profit. It is easy to read and easy to misread, because it says nothing about how large the wins and losses were.
Read article -
How Institutional Investors Build Financial Models
How institutional investors turn sourced financial history, business drivers and scenarios into a reviewable model, and where spreadsheets and AI fit.
Read article -
Can a 3% Margin Business Earn 20% ROCE? Here’s the math
Yes. A 3% margin can produce roughly 20% ROCE when each rupee of average capital employed generates about ₹6.70 of annual income. Here is the arithmetic.
Read article -
How Does USD/INR Affect Your Portfolio?
USD/INR rose 9.83% in FY26. The same move can lift an exporter's rupee revenue, raise an airline's dollar-linked costs and change the INR return on foreign assets.
Read article -
If Everyone Has AI, Who Wins?
If every investor has AI, the model stops being the edge. The advantage moves to proprietary context, reliable infrastructure, repeatable workflows, feedback loops and judgement.
Read article -
Investing Then vs Now: What AI Actually Changed
AI did not remove the need to understand a business. It changed the unit of research from one company at a time to one sourced question across the market.
Read article -
P/E Below 20 Worked for Me. Until It Didn’t.
Five FY26 IT companies all traded below 20 times earnings, yet their growth, returns on capital and cash conversion were very different. The threshold was only the first question.
Read article -
Revenue Grew 22%. So Why Did the Stock Fall 16%?
Amber Enterprises grew FY26 revenue by 22.19%, yet its shares closed 15.61% lower in the first session after the result. The missing story was below the topline.
Read article -
Jubilant Ingrevia: The Recovery Is Real but Not Complete
Revenue and PAT remain below FY22, but margins and operating cash flow have improved from the FY24 trough. Debt is the unfinished part.
Read article -
The 1x P/E Illusion: When One-Time Profit Distorts Valuation
A very low P/E can be an accounting snapshot, not a recurring valuation. Separate ongoing earnings from exceptional and discontinued gains first.
Read article -
The Paint Sector's ₹100 Test: Four Financial Fingerprints
Four paint makers reported similar FY26 growth but very different margins and cash conversion. A three-number test shows why one metric is not enough.
Read article -
Profit Positive, Cash Negative: Five FY26 Cases Worth Investigating
Positive profit with negative operating cash flow is a forensic signal, not a verdict. Five FY26 cases show the questions it should trigger.
Read article -
Same Score, Different Stock: What Factor Ratings Can Hide
Two stocks can reach the same composite score through opposite strengths. Read value, quality and trend separately before trusting the total.
Read article -
When Profit Outruns Sales: Four Checks Before You Celebrate
Profit growing faster than sales can signal better economics or a temporary lift. Check the top line, margin bridge, cash and comparison base.
Read article -
A Practical Guide to Forensic Accounting for Indian Stocks
Forensic accounting is a set of practical checks you run on reported numbers, cash versus profit, receivables and inventory, related parties, revenue timing, and auditor signals, before you trust the headline.
Read article -
Building KPI Trees for Indian Companies
A KPI tree connects a company's operating drivers to its financial statements as a hierarchy. Here is how to structure one, top-down, with an Indian-company shaped example.
Read article -
Building Trustworthy AI for Investing
Trustworthy financial AI rests on four disciplines: grounding every claim in filings, showing provenance, computing numbers deterministically, and knowing what it does not know.
Read article -
Common Modelling Mistakes Analysts Make
The recurring errors that quietly ruin financial models: hardcoding, false precision, restated history, straight-lined growth, circular references, and single-case thinking, with plain fixes for each.
Read article -
Comparing Fund Manager Portfolios at Scale
Comparing fund portfolios at scale means looking past the top holdings to overlap, active share, concentration, sector bets, and factor tilts, so you can see how two managers actually differ.
Read article -
Finding Consensus Changes Before Earnings
Consensus changes are shifts in what the market expects a company to earn, spotted before results land. The change in expectations moves stocks more than the level.
Read article -
How Mutual Fund Analysts Compare Companies Within a Sector
Buy-side analysts do not rank companies on headline numbers. They normalise for accounting and structure, put businesses on a like-for-like basis, and separate quality from cheapness before ranking anything.
Read article -
How Portfolio Managers Monitor 100 Companies at Once
Managing 100-plus names is a triage problem, not a reading problem: rank by exception, let alerts surface what changed, rotate deep coverage, and spend attention where the thesis is under stress.
Read article -
How Sell-Side Analysts Forecast Revenue
Sell-side analysts forecast revenue by combining top-down market sizing with bottom-up driver models, cross-checking both against management guidance and channel checks, then publishing an estimate that feeds consensus.
Read article -
Managing Research Coverage Across Sectors
How institutional teams manage research coverage across many sectors: sizing capacity, prioritising names, trading depth against breadth, and handing off cleanly so nothing important goes unwatched.
Read article -
Measuring Portfolio Drift: How a Portfolio Wanders From Its Mandate
Portfolio drift is the slow, unintended shift of a portfolio away from its stated style, size, sector, and concentration limits. Here is how to measure it before it surprises you.
Read article -
Revenue Segmentation Is Harder Than It Looks
Mapping a company's revenue to its real business segments sounds like reading a table. In practice, inconsistent disclosure, shifting definitions, and reclassifications make a clean segment history genuinely hard to build.
Read article -
Structured vs Unstructured Financial Data: Why Real Analysis Needs Both
Structured financial data is the neat tables. Unstructured data is the concalls, notes, and filings around them. Real analysis needs both, and the unstructured half is the hard half.
Read article -
The Quarter That Changes a Thesis: How One Result Can Rewrite the Story
A single quarter can invalidate or confirm an investment thesis. This is the inflection concept: what an inflection quarter looks like, the signals that mark one, and how to tell a real turn from noise.
Read article -
What Changes After Every Quarterly Result: An Analyst's Update Routine
After every quarterly result a disciplined analyst runs the same checklist: numbers versus estimate, what guidance changed, whether the thesis still holds, and which model assumptions to update.
Read article -
Why a Cheap Stock Can Stay Cheap: Understanding Value Traps
A value trap is a stock that looks cheap on a low multiple but stays cheap because the business underneath is deteriorating. Low price and cheap are not the same thing.
Read article -
Why Point-in-Time Databases Are Hard to Build
A point-in-time database stores every financial number the way it was actually known on each past date. That sounds simple, but restatements, reclassifications, and corporate actions make it one of the hardest things in financial data.
Read article -
Why Restatements Break Models and Backtests
Restatements and reclassifications quietly rewrite a company's past, so a model or backtest built on today's numbers acts on figures nobody could have seen at the time.
Read article -
Why Unit Economics Matter More Than Earnings
Unit economics show what one unit of a business earns after the cost to serve it, which reveals whether a company is healthy long before the reported profit line does.
Read article -
Why XBRL Isn't Enough for Real Financial Analysis
XBRL turns filings into machine-readable tags, which is genuinely useful, but tagged numbers are not the same as analysis-ready data. Here is the gap and why it matters.
Read article -
AI Stock Screeners for Indian Stocks: What They Do, and How to Choose
An AI stock screener lets you find Indian stocks by describing what you want in plain English. Here is what the category adds, where it genuinely helps, its real limits, and how Altys approaches it.
Read article -
The Best Mutual Fund Research Tools in India (2026), by Who They Fit
A fair, factual guide to the main mutual fund research tools in India in 2026: Value Research, Morningstar, Tickertape, Trendlyne, PrimeInvestor and more, grouped by who each one fits.
Read article -
The HDFC Bank Business Model Explained
How HDFC Bank makes money: net interest income from a large low-cost deposit base, plus fees from cards, payments, and distributing third-party products.
Read article -
How India's Biggest Companies Make Money: Business Models Explained
A running guide to how India's largest listed companies actually earn. The revenue drivers, cost structures, and economics behind banks, IT, FMCG, autos, retail, and more, in plain language.
Read article -
The ICICI Bank Business Model Explained
How ICICI Bank makes money: the spread between loan and deposit rates at the core, plus fee income and a group of insurance, broking, and asset-management subsidiaries.
Read article -
The Infosys Business Model Explained
How Infosys makes money: billing global clients for software development, maintenance, consulting, and digital work, priced on people, rates, and utilisation.
Read article -
The Nykaa Business Model Explained
How Nykaa makes money: an inventory-led beauty retailer with higher-margin house brands, a marketplace fashion arm, and a growing network of physical stores.
Read article -
The Paytm Business Model Explained
How Paytm makes money: high-volume payments processing and device subscriptions at the core, plus financial-services distribution and marketing services on top.
Read article -
Raise AI and Fuzz: What They Are, and an India-Focused Research Alternative
Fuzz, by Raise Financial Services, is an India-focused agentic AI for finance. Here is what it does well and how a point-in-time, source-linked research desk differs.
Read article -
The Tata Motors Business Model Explained
How Tata Motors makes money: commercial vehicles and passenger cars in India, an electric-vehicle push, and Jaguar Land Rover selling luxury vehicles worldwide.
Read article -
The TCS Business Model Explained
How Tata Consultancy Services makes money: billing global clients for software development, maintenance, consulting, system integration, and business-process outsourcing.
Read article -
Tickertape Alternatives for Indian Stock and Mutual Fund Analysis
Tickertape is an excellent, accessible analytics app for Indian stocks and mutual funds. Here is where it fits and a point-in-time, source-linked alternative for professional desks.
Read article -
Tijori Stack: What It Is, and an India-Focused Research Alternative
Tijori Stack is Tijori Finance's AI research suite, backed by Zerodha. Here is what its four products do and how an India-deep, point-in-time alternative differs.
Read article -
The Trent Business Model Explained
How Trent makes money: fashion retail through Westside and the fast-growing value chain Zudio, built almost entirely on its own private-label brands, plus a grocery joint venture.
Read article -
Aftermarkets for Indian Stocks: What It Does and an India-Focused Research Alternative
aftermarkets is a real-time NSE and BSE market intelligence tool with conviction scores and fast filing summaries. Here is a fair look at it and a deeper research alternative for India.
Read article -
AlphaSense in India: What It Does and India-Focused Alternatives for Equity Research
What AlphaSense is, its strengths as a global market-intelligence platform, and how India-first alternatives compare for research on Indian equities and filings.
Read article -
Analysis Paralysis in the AI Era
When AI makes analysis nearly free, the hard part is no longer producing it, it is deciding. Here is why more output can deepen paralysis and how to keep AI in service of a decision.
Read article -
The Best AI Tools for Researching Indian Stocks (2026), and Their Limits
A fair look at AI research tools for Indian stocks in 2026: AlphaSense, Rogo, ChatGPT and Claude, Multibagg, and Altys, with an honest take on what AI does well and where it fails.
Read article -
The Best Equity Research Tools in India (2026), by Who They Fit
A fair, factual guide to equity research tools for Indian stocks: Screener.in, Tijori, Trendlyne, TIKR, Morningstar, Bloomberg, and Altys, grouped by who each one fits.
Read article -
The Best Fundamental Analysis Tools for Indian Stocks (2026)
A fair, factual guide to the top fundamental analysis tools for Indian stocks in 2026: Screener.in, Tijori, Trendlyne, TIKR, and Altys, grouped by who each one fits.
Read article -
Bloomberg Terminal Alternatives for Indian Equity Research
Looking for a Bloomberg Terminal alternative for Indian equity research? A fair comparison of the Terminal and a focused, India-deep option for NSE and BSE analysts.
Read article -
Building a Financial Model from Primary Sources
Build a model from the filings themselves: pull the reported statements, read the notes, rebuild the history, then drive it with segment and KPI assumptions.
Read article -
Building an AI That Understands Financial Statements
Understanding a financial statement is not reading its words. It means normalising the data, respecting the accounting identities, and cross-checking every number against the other statements.
Read article -
Continuous Research Is the New Competitive Edge
Research done once decays fast. The edge now belongs to desks that monitor many names continuously, so thesis-breaking events surface as they happen, not a quarter late.
Read article -
Continuous Research vs One-Time Research
One-time research studies a company at purchase and rarely again. Continuous research watches it always. Here is the head-to-head on effort, cost, and what each one catches or misses.
Read article -
Detecting Management Narrative Shifts
Spot when management's story quietly changes by tracking the metric they stop mentioning, the new word that appears, and the hedge that creeps into guidance across quarters.
Read article -
Why Every Investment Team Will Have an AI Operating System
Research teams will move from scattered point tools to one shared, always-on layer: clean sourced data, queryable documents, and continuous monitoring, so analysts spend their time on judgement.
Read article -
Financial Modelling with AI: What It Does and What Stays Human
AI speeds up the mechanical parts of financial modelling (gathering inputs, spreading history, checking consistency, drafting), while assumptions, judgement, and the forecast stay with you.
Read article -
Finding Hidden Risks Before the Market Does
Hidden risks live in the footnotes, off-balance-sheet items, customer and supplier concentration, contingent liabilities, and working-capital creep. Here is a repeatable way to hunt for them.
Read article -
Forecasting Using Management Guidance
To forecast with management guidance, read the band and the hedge, discount it by how reliably that management has hit past guidance, and combine it with your own driver work instead of copying the number.
Read article -
From Reading Documents to Asking Questions
Research is shifting from reading whole filings front to back to interrogating them with specific questions and getting sourced answers, which changes where an analyst spends time and attention.
Read article -
How AI Compresses a Week of Research Into an Hour
AI collapses the grunt work of primary research, gathering, reading, and spreading numbers, from days to minutes. The judgement, the part that decides the outcome, still takes a human.
Read article -
How Analysts Forecast Revenue Before Earnings
Analysts forecast revenue by breaking it into drivers like price and volume, anchoring each driver to management guidance and observable signals, then building a range rather than a single number.
Read article -
How Hedge Funds Actually Research Companies
Hedge funds research companies by starting from primary sources, hunting for disconfirming evidence, and building a variant view. Here is the mindset.
Read article -
How Professional Investors Actually Build an Investment Thesis
A thesis is a falsifiable claim about why the market is wrong. Here is the thinking that gets you there: understand the business, map revenue, isolate the drivers, and name what breaks it.
Read article -
How to Compare Companies Across 10 Years of Filings
To compare a company across a decade, normalise for restatements, segment redefinitions, and accounting changes first, so every year is measured on the same basis before you read the trend.
Read article -
How Professionals Monitor a Portfolio of Holdings Without Drowning
Monitor many holdings by defining per-name guideposts and triggers up front, watching a few KPIs per business, checking guidance against actuals, and setting filing alerts.
Read article -
How to Monitor a Stock After You Buy It
Watch one holding by tying it to the two or three drivers your thesis rests on, checking guidance against actuals each quarter, and separating signal from daily noise.
Read article -
How to Read an Earnings Call Like an Analyst
Read an earnings call by separating what management measures from what it emphasises, tracking how guidance language shifts, and recording forward claims to grade later.
Read article -
How Top Funds Prepare for Earnings Season
Top funds prepare for earnings by refreshing driver forecasts, writing down what they expect and what would surprise them, listing the exact questions each print must answer, and pre-committing to how they will react.
Read article -
Information Overload Is the Real Edge Killer
More information is not better research. The edge is synthesis and focus: knowing the few variables that matter for each holding, writing them down, and ignoring the rest.
Read article -
The Institutional Equity Research Workflow, End to End
Institutional equity research runs a full lifecycle: idea, business map, model, forecast, forensic checks, committee, and monitoring, with AI reshaping each stage.
Read article -
Investing Before AI and After AI: How the Research Day Actually Changes
Before AI, an analyst's day was manual reading and hand-spreading numbers. After AI, the reading is delegated and the human spends the day on judgement.
Read article -
Why Your Investment Thesis Should Be a Living Document
A thesis is not a decision you make once at purchase. It is an object you maintain: falsifiable claims, key drivers, and guideposts you grade over time.
Read article -
KPI Tracking That Actually Matters: Pick the Two or Three That Decide the Outcome
Most KPIs are noise. A handful decide the result. Here is how to find the two or three operating metrics that actually drive a business and track those instead of everything.
Read article -
Mapping Every KPI to the Financial Statements
Every operating KPI moves a specific line in the accounts. Map subscribers, ARPU, utilisation and receivable days to revenue, margin and cash to trace the business into profit.
Read article -
Morningstar Direct Alternatives for Indian Equities and Funds
What Morningstar Direct is, where it is strong, and the India-first alternative for investors who need deep Indian equity and mutual-fund research.
Read article -
Multibagg Alternatives: AI Research Tools for Indian Stocks
What Multibagg AI is, where it fits, and how an India-first, source-linked research tool like Altys compares for professional equity research.
Read article -
Reading Between the Lines of an Annual Report
The signal in an annual report hides in the notes, related-party tables, accounting-policy changes, and auditor language. Read the parts most people skip and the wording that quietly shifts.
Read article -
Revenue Mapping Explained: The First Thing Institutional Investors Do
Revenue mapping breaks a company's single topline into segments, then into the drivers of each segment, so you can see where profit actually sits versus where revenue sits.
Read article -
Rogo AI and Indian Markets: What to Know and the India-Focused Alternative
Rogo is an AI analyst platform for investment banks and buy-side firms, built on global data. Here is how it fits Indian markets and an India-first alternative.
Read article -
Screener.in and Beyond: Tools for Professional-Grade Indian Equity Research
Screener.in is a superb, low-cost fundamentals tool that most Indian investors love. Here is where a professional running concentrated books may want more, and how Altys fits.
Read article -
Segment Analysis Explained: How to Read a Conglomerate Clearly
Segment analysis reads a company's own business-by-business disclosure so you can see where revenue sits versus where profit sits, instead of trusting one blended topline.
Read article -
Stock Forensics: How to Find Problems Before the Market Does
Stock forensics means pressure-testing reported accounts instead of taking them at face value: comparing cash to profit, reading working capital, and checking that the statements agree.
Read article -
Structuring Decades of Filings So an AI Can Actually Use Them
A language model cannot reason over a messy pile of filings. Labels drift, statements get restated, formats change, and history is not what it looks like today.
Read article -
The Anatomy of an Institutional Research Report
An institutional research report is the standing document a desk keeps on a company: thesis, business, drivers, model, valuation range, risks, and a monitoring plan.
Read article -
The Biggest Mistake Is Not Revisiting Your Thesis
The costliest habit in investing is anchoring to the reason you first bought and never re-underwriting it. Here is why it happens and the habits that beat it.
Read article -
The Cost of Missing One Filing
Most company filings do not matter, but the one you miss can be the one that breaks your thesis. That asymmetry is why systematic coverage beats relying on attention and willpower.
Read article -
The Death of Ctrl+F in Annual Reports
Keyword search finds strings, not meaning. It misses synonyms, ignores context, and cannot answer a question, which is why reading filings is shifting from searching words to asking questions.
Read article -
The Death of the Static Research Report
A research report is a snapshot that starts decaying the day it is filed. It is being replaced by living, queryable research that updates itself as the facts change.
Read article -
The Engineering Challenges Behind Institutional AI
Institutional-grade financial AI is hard for five reasons: data quality, point-in-time correctness, citations, deterministic outputs, and coverage at scale. Here is each one.
Read article -
The Hidden Tax of Fragmented Research
Scattering research across many tools, tabs, and sources charges a quiet tax in context-switching, reconciliation, and lost trails. Consolidation buys back time and, more importantly, judgment.
Read article -
The Thesis Monitoring Checklist
A reusable checklist for monitoring an investment thesis: the drivers to watch, the guideposts to record, the cadence, the triggers, and the disclosures to never miss.
Read article -
Tijori Finance Alternatives for Deeper Indian Equity Research
Tijori Finance is an India-focused research app known for segment and operational data. Here is where it fits and an India-deep, point-in-time alternative.
Read article -
TIKR for Indian Stocks: Coverage and India-Focused Alternatives
What TIKR Terminal covers for Indian stocks, where global tools fall short on India depth, and how an India-first alternative approaches the same research.
Read article -
Tracking Historical Guidance Accuracy: How to Grade Management on Their Promises
Grade management by whether they hit past guidance. A team that keeps missing its own numbers has earned less trust in its next forecast than one that delivers.
Read article -
Trendlyne Alternatives for Fundamental and Institutional Research in India
Trendlyne is a broad Indian markets platform with screeners, DVM scores, and broker estimates. Here is where it fits, and India-focused alternatives for deeper research.
Read article -
What Happens Before an Investment Committee Approves a Stock
Before capital is committed, a committee stress-tests the idea: it attacks the thesis, checks the risks, sizes the position, and attaches conditions.
Read article -
What Should Trigger a Sell?
A sell should be triggered when the specific reason you bought stops being true. Define those triggers in writing before you own the position, not during a drawdown.
Read article -
Why Citations Are Non-Negotiable in Financial AI
Every number a financial AI reports must link to the source document. An unsourced but plausible figure is worse than no answer, because it invites a costly error.
Read article -
Why Conviction Fades After You Buy
Conviction erodes after purchase because price noise, second-guessing and out-of-context news pull at it. A written thesis and a short list of the drivers that matter protect it.
Read article -
Why Deterministic Forecasting Beats LLM Guesses
A forecast used for capital must be reproducible and auditable. A language model's free-form guess is neither, which is why serious forecasts come from an explicit method, not a prompt.
Read article -
Why Every Analyst Will Have an AI Associate
An AI associate does the tireless first pass, pulling numbers and reading every page, while the human analyst keeps the judgement, conviction, and accountability.
Read article -
Why Forensic Analysis Matters
Forensic analysis matters because reported numbers are interpretations, not facts, and taking them at face value is how investors get surprised by problems that were visible all along.
Read article -
Why Most Investors Miss Thesis-Breaking Events
Thesis-breaking news slips past because investors follow too many names, only pay attention at results, never wrote down what would break the case, and let noise drown the signal.
Read article -
Why One Sentence in a Filing Can Change Your Thesis
A single line in a filing can confirm or break a thesis. The discipline is tying each thesis claim to the exact sentences that would move it, then watching for them.
Read article -
Why Point-in-Time Data Matters in Research and Backtests
Point-in-time data means using the numbers that were actually knowable on a given date, not today's restated version. Skip it and your research quietly looks smarter than it was.
Read article -
Why Research Coverage Is Becoming Obsolete
A fixed coverage list exists because analyst time was scarce and expensive. When reading and monitoring get cheap, that rationing breaks, and the narrow list of names a team follows stops making sense.
Read article -
Your Thesis Does Not End When You Buy
The day you buy is a handoff from research to ownership. Here is the concrete work a disciplined desk sets up at that moment: record the thesis, stand up the monitoring, and schedule the re-read.
Read article -
The Adani Ports Business Model Explained
How Adani Ports and SEZ makes money: cargo handling fees at India's largest private port network, plus rail, warehousing and SEZ land at Mundra.
Read article -
Airtel vs Jio: How India's Telecom Duopoly Actually Competes
Jio competes on scale and ecosystem bundling inside Reliance; Airtel competes on premium users and ARPU. A factual guide to India's telecom duopoly.
Read article -
The Asian Paints Business Model Explained
How Asian Paints makes money: decorative paint volumes, premium mix, a direct dealer network, and a supply chain competitors have struggled to copy.
Read article -
Asian Paints vs Berger Paints: The Duopoly, Compared
A factual side by side of India's two largest listed paint companies: scale, distribution, margins and the Birla Opus disruption. No winner declared.
Read article -
HDFC Bank vs ICICI Bank: A Side by Side Look at India's Big Two
A factual comparison of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank: scale, margins, CASA, asset quality, and how to read each. No winner declared, education only.
Read article -
How to Compare Two Companies Properly: A Checklist
A step-by-step method for comparing two listed companies: check comparability first, compare operations before valuation, and normalise the traps.
Read article -
How to Read ITC: Five Businesses, One Cash Machine
A segment-first method for reading ITC's results: cigarettes, FMCG, paperboards, agri and the demerged hotels, plus the cross-checks that matter.
Read article -
Maruti Suzuki vs Tata Motors: Two Very Different Ways to Sell Cars
Maruti is a pure India passenger-vehicle business. Tata Motors is a global group built around JLR, trucks and EVs. The contrast is the real lesson.
Read article -
How Does SBI Make Money? India's Biggest Bank, Explained
SBI earns most of its money from the spread between low-cost deposits and a giant loan book, plus fees and stakes in SBI Life, SBI Cards and SBI MF.
Read article -
Why India's Bluechips Struggle to Grow (and Why That Is Normal)
Giant companies grow slowly because of arithmetic, not failure. The base effect, market saturation and reinvestment drag explained simply.
Read article -
The P/E Ratio Is Not Enough: Six Numbers to Read With It
The P/E compresses a business into one number and loses the detail. Six companions, growth, returns, cash, debt, cycles, share count, restore the picture.
Read article -
AI for Equity Research: A Practical Guide
AI speeds up equity research by summarising filings, extracting data, monitoring events, and drafting notes, as long as you verify every figure against the source.
Read article -
The Hardest Part of AI in Finance Is Not the Model. It Is the Data.
In financial AI, the model is fast becoming a commodity. The durable edge lives in disciplined data work: units, restatements, point-in-time correctness.
Read article -
The AI Research Analyst Is Here: What Actually Works and What Is Just Marketing
AI can already read filings, extract data, and monitor events at scale. It cannot pick winners on command. Here is how to tell the tools apart before you buy.
Read article -
The Bajaj Finance Business Model Explained
How Bajaj Finance makes money as one of India's largest NBFCs: lending spreads, fees, a huge customer franchise, and why cost of funds and asset quality matter.
Read article -
The Bharti Airtel Business Model Explained
How Bharti Airtel makes money: mobile subscribers and ARPU at the core, plus broadband, enterprise, and a large Africa business.
Read article -
Can AI Predict Company Earnings? Separating Hype From Reality
AI can read filings and model earnings faster than any human, but it cannot see the future. Here is what the technology genuinely does, and where its limits are hard.
Read article -
Can AI Actually Read a Balance Sheet? Where LLMs Break on Financial Statements
Language models are strong at prose and weak at accounting. Here is exactly where they break on real filings, and what makes machine reading of statements reliable.
Read article -
The Coal India Business Model Explained
How Coal India makes money: a state-owned mining near-monopoly that sells regulated-price and e-auction coal, mostly to power plants, and returns cash as dividends.
Read article -
How to Build a DCF Model for Indian SaaS Companies
Build a DCF for an Indian SaaS company by projecting revenue from growth drivers, modelling the burn-to-cash-flow path, and discounting future cash flows back.
Read article -
Reading Debt: Debt-to-Equity and Interest Coverage, Explained
How to judge whether a company carries safe or dangerous debt using two ratios: debt-to-equity for the mix, interest coverage for the ability to pay.
Read article -
Dividend Yield vs Payout Ratio: How to Read a Company's Dividend
Dividend yield is the cash return relative to the share price, while payout ratio is the share of profit paid out. You need both to read a dividend.
Read article -
The DMart Business Model Explained (Avenue Supermarts)
How DMart works: an everyday-low-price grocery chain run by Avenue Supermarts that buys well, owns its stores, and turns inventory fast for lean returns.
Read article -
EPS Explained: How Buybacks and Bonus Shares Change the Number
EPS is net profit attributable to shareholders divided by share count. Buybacks lift it, bonus issues and splits lower it, all without touching the business.
Read article -
Free Cash Flow vs Net Profit: Why Cash Is Harder to Fake
Free cash flow is the cash left after a company funds its operations and capex, while net profit is an accounting figure. Cash is much harder to manipulate.
Read article -
GPT vs Claude vs Gemini on Company Filings: Why Model Benchmarks Mislead in Finance
Public LLM leaderboards rank general reasoning, not filing work. In finance the gap that decides quality lives in data handling, not raw model IQ.
Read article -
Gross vs Net Revenue: The Excise Trap in Oil Marketing Companies
An OMC's reported topline includes excise duty collected for the government, so gross revenue overstates real operating scale. Net-of-excise revenue is the cleaner base.
Read article -
HDFC Bank CASA Ratio: History and What It Means
The CASA ratio is the share of low-cost current and savings deposits in total deposits. HDFC Bank ran in the low-40s for years, then eased to the high-30s after the 2023 merger.
Read article -
The Hindustan Unilever (HUL) Business Model Explained
How Hindustan Unilever makes money: everyday brands across home care, beauty and foods, sold through one of India's deepest distribution networks.
Read article -
How PMS Firms Research Indian Stocks
A professional PMS firm researches an Indian stock through a disciplined, multi-stage process: screen the universe, read filings, model drivers, verify on the ground, value, size, and monitor.
Read article -
How to Build a Three-Statement Financial Model
A three-statement model links the P&L, balance sheet and cash flow into one connected file. Build the P&L first, then the balance sheet, then let cash flow fall out.
Read article -
How to Forecast Bank Earnings: A Practical Framework
A step-by-step framework for forecasting a bank's earnings: project loan and deposit growth, apply margin for net interest income, then subtract costs and credit provisions.
Read article -
How to Forecast HDFC Bank Earnings: A Framework
A step-by-step framework for building a large bank earnings forecast, using HDFC Bank as a worked example: growth, NIM, fees, costs and credit.
Read article -
How to Model Asian Paints Gross Margins
Asian Paints gross margin is a crude-linked spread: model revenue as volume times realisation, cost of goods as input costs plus mix, then stress it against crude.
Read article -
How to Read a Cash Flow Statement
A plain guide to the cash flow statement: the three sections, how profit reconciles to operating cash, and how to reach free cash flow.
Read article -
How to Read an Annual Report in 30 Minutes: What Actually Matters
Skip the glossy front pages. Start with the auditor's report and cash flows, then check related-party dealings and contingent liabilities for what the headline numbers hide.
Read article -
How to Read a Bank's Financials: NIM, CASA, NPA and Why ROCE Does Not Apply
A bank is read on NIM, CASA, asset quality and capital, not ROCE or debt-to-equity, because deposits are its raw material, not just its funding.
Read article -
How to Value a Cyclical Company (and Why P/E Betrays You)
Cyclical companies fool the P/E ratio: it looks cheapest at the top and dearest at the bottom. Here is why, and the tools professionals use instead.
Read article -
How to Value NBFCs: A Guide to Indian Non-Bank Lenders
Indian NBFCs are usually valued on price-to-book, not P/E alone, because book value and return on equity drive the multiple. Here is the framework.
Read article -
How to Write an Investment Memo (With a Template)
An investment memo is the document that argues for a position. Here is what a strong one contains, plus a reusable template you can adapt.
Read article -
Indian Banks NIM Forecasting Guide: How Net Interest Margin Moves
Net interest margin is what a bank earns on loans minus what it pays on deposits. Here is how the RBI rate cycle, deposit lags, and CASA mix move it.
Read article -
Indian Concall Analysis: How to Read an Earnings Call, With Examples
How to analyse an Indian concall (earnings call): read the opening narrative, then guidance, demand, margins, capex, and the analyst Q&A, where the real tells hide.
Read article -
The IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation) Business Model Explained
How IndiGo makes money: a low-cost carrier model built on a single-type fleet, high aircraft use, low fares and a growing international network.
Read article -
The IRCTC Business Model Explained
IRCTC makes most of its money from a monopoly on online railway ticketing, backed by catering, packaged water, and tourism. Here is how each piece works.
Read article -
The ITC Business Model Explained
How ITC makes money: a high-margin cigarette cash cow funds a growing FMCG portfolio, paperboards, agri, and large dividends.
Read article -
The Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Business Model Explained
How Larsen & Toubro makes money: a project-driven EPC business built on order inflows and execution, plus valuable stakes in listed tech and services firms.
Read article -
A Management Guidance Database for India: What It Is and Why It Matters
A management guidance database is a structured, searchable record of what company managements say they expect, tracked over time so you can see how the story changes.
Read article -
Management Guidance: What It Is and Why Analysts Track Every Word
Management guidance is the forward-looking view a company's leaders give on growth, margins and demand. Analysts track its revisions as a leading signal.
Read article -
The Maruti Suzuki Business Model Explained
How India's largest carmaker earns money: selling passenger vehicles at scale through a vast dealer and service network, plus exports and after-sales.
Read article -
Alternatives to Morningstar for Indian Equity Research
A fair, factual guide to choosing an equity research platform for Indian stocks, and the criteria that matter most when weighing alternatives to Morningstar.
Read article -
The Nestle India Business Model Explained
Nestle India sells branded packaged foods and beverages through deep distribution, an asset-light supply chain, and pricing power, earning very high returns on capital.
Read article -
Operating Margin Explained: What It Reveals About a Business
Operating margin is operating profit divided by revenue: the share of each rupee of sales left after core running costs, before interest and tax.
Read article -
The P/E Ratio Explained: Why a Low P/E Is Not Always Cheap
The P/E ratio is share price divided by earnings per share. A low P/E is not automatically cheap, because it often reflects low growth or higher risk.
Read article -
The Pidilite Business Model Explained (Fevicol and Beyond)
How Pidilite makes money: category-defining adhesives brands like Fevicol, deep distribution to carpenters and contractors, and crude-linked input costs.
Read article -
Promoter Holding and Pledging: What They Signal in Indian Stocks
Promoter holding is the stake a company's founding or controlling group owns, and pledging is when they use those shares as loan collateral. Both are public signals.
Read article -
The Reliance Industries Business Model Explained
How Reliance Industries makes money across oil-to-chemicals, Jio telecom and Reliance Retail, and why the group runs on heavy capex cycles.
Read article -
Tata Motors Revenue Model Explained
How Tata Motors makes money: the large majority of revenue comes from Jaguar Land Rover abroad, with India commercial and passenger vehicles alongside it.
Read article -
The Equity Research Process, Step by Step
The equity research process is a repeatable workflow that turns filings and data into a reasoned view: screen, study, model, value, write, and monitor.
Read article -
The Titan Business Model Explained
How Titan makes money: Tanishq jewellery is the profit engine of this Tata group lifestyle brand, with watches, eyewear and newer categories alongside.
Read article -
Trent: The Business and How Its Valuation Works
How Trent's retail engine of Westside, Zudio and Star actually makes money, and why fast-growing retailers tend to carry high earnings multiples.
Read article -
The Varun Beverages Business Model Explained
Varun Beverages is one of PepsiCo's largest bottlers outside the US. Here is how a franchise bottler actually makes money and grows.
Read article -
What Is an Economic Moat? Competitive Advantage, With Indian Examples
An economic moat is a durable competitive advantage that lets a company keep earning high returns on capital. Here are the main types, with Indian examples.
Read article -
EBITDA Explained: The Number Companies Love and Investors Should Question
EBITDA is operating profit before interest, tax and non-cash charges. It is useful for comparing firms, but ignores capex and debt, so read it beside cash flow.
Read article -
Lookahead Bias, Explained: The Silent Killer of Stock Backtests
Lookahead bias is when a backtest uses information it could not have known at the time. It quietly inflates results, and point in time data is the only real fix.
Read article -
What Is ROCE? Return on Capital Employed, Explained with Indian Examples
ROCE measures how efficiently a business turns the capital it uses into operating profit. It is EBIT divided by capital employed, and higher, steadier is better.
Read article -
Return on Equity (ROE) Explained: Why a High Number Can Mislead
ROE is net profit divided by shareholders equity. It shows profit earned on owners money, but a high figure can hide debt rather than signal a better business.
Read article -
Why AI Investing Apps Keep Getting Indian Stocks Wrong
Most AI investing tools are built for clean global data. Indian equities are full of local quirks that make those tools confidently wrong. Here is why.
Read article -
Why ChatGPT Hallucinates Financial Numbers, and How to Catch It
General chatbots predict plausible text, they do not look up facts, so they invent revenue and profit numbers. Here is why, and how to catch it.
Read article -
Why Earnings Call Transcripts Break Search, and What AI Must Do Instead
Transcripts hide their most important signals from keyword and even semantic search. The fix is structured extraction of management commentary, tracked over time.
Read article -
Why RAG Alone Fails for Equity Research
Retrieval-augmented generation reads filings like prose. Equity research lives in tables, footnotes and vintages, where one wrong digit is a wrong answer.
Read article -
AI Will Not Replace the Analyst. It Will Replace the Grunt Work.
The threat to equity research is not the analyst's judgement, it is the hours spent gathering filings and re-keying numbers. AI is coming for the grunt work first.
Read article -
Working Capital and the Cash Conversion Cycle, Explained
Working capital is the money tied up in day to day operations, and the cash conversion cycle measures how many days cash stays locked in the business.
Read article -
The Zomato (Eternal) Business Model Explained
How Eternal, the parent of Zomato and Blinkit, makes money across food delivery, quick commerce, going-out and B2B restaurant supplies.
Read article -
Data Quality Beats Model Quality: A Year Reading Indian Filings
After a year building AI to read Indian company filings, the biggest gains came from boring data discipline, not from a better model. Here is what actually moved the needle.
Read article -
TCS Financials Explained: Revenue, Margins and Returns
A factual overview of Tata Consultancy Services financials, covering revenue growth, operating margins, and return on equity, sourced from company filings.
Read article -
Infosys Financials Explained: Revenue, Margins and Returns
A factual overview of Infosys financials, covering revenue growth, operating margins, and return on equity, sourced from company filings.
Read article -
TCS vs Infosys: A Side by Side Look at the Financials
A factual, side by side comparison of TCS and Infosys on revenue, operating margin, and return on equity, sourced from company filings. No recommendation of one over the other.
Read article