You often hear of the market being bullish or bearish. But what is a bull market?
The term Bull Market is most frequently used in respect of stock markets.

What is a Bull Market?
A bull market is one in which prices of securities are rising or are expected to rise.
It is a prolonged period where the security prices rise faster than their historical average.
Bull market is based on the investor’s belief that the upward trend of securities will continue in the long term.
Bull Market indicates that the economy of the country is strong and also suggests good level of employment.
Why Bull markets happen?
Causes: It can happen as a result of
• Economic recovery
• Economic boom,
• Investor psychology
• Positive Political event
What things an Investor should do in a Bull Market? Investors must take advantage of the rising prices in the bull market and buy securities early, when prices reach their peak sell it i.e. book profits.
Example of Bull Market:
There had been a number of bull markets. There had been the rally in the Sensex, where it has run from 7,000 in June of 2005 to over 21,000 in early 2008.

This post will shed some light on the questions like: What is Inflation? What causes inflation?

People usually complain about prices going up these days. This rise in prices in economic terms is called “inflation”.
Inflation:” Inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time”.-Wikipedia
The higher the inflation, the lesser the value of our money. Inflation reduces the purchasing power of our money. Your money 5 years back cannot buy the same amount of goods now. We pay more money for the same quantity of goods.
Inflation is a sign that an economy is growing. The lack of inflation may be an indication that the economy is weakening.

Have you ever perhaps asked to anyone “What causes the inflation?”If you want to know then here’s a simple explanation:
There are many causes for inflation, depending on a number of factors. But there are broadly 3 causes:
Demand pull inflation: If demand is growing faster than supply, prices will increase. This usually occurs in growing economies like India. Prices are forced upwards because of the high demand.
Cost-push inflation: If there is drop in supply due to natural disaster (e.g. drought) or increased prices of inputs (raw material).
When a country experience natural disasters like excessive rain or drought, it destroys various crops, causing prices of these crops rise to high.
Let us say, if inputs/raw materials increase in price, this leads to the cost of production increasing. If there is a rise in production costs, which leads to an increase in the price of the final product of the company, which in turn leads to the company increasing prices to maintain their profits.
Built- in inflation: Rising labor costs can lead to inflation. As workers demand their wage increases, and companies usually chose to pass on those costs to their customers. It leads to a vicious circle.

There are various options available to fight inflation. Learn How to fight Inflation in my next post.

This blog post is about Demat charges paid to different DPs in India.
Comparison table of Demat charges:
In the table, I have not included charges for Dematerialization, Rematerialization, Pledge Services, off-market transfers, included only 3 major charges:


There are many other factors which you should consider while choosing the DP other than charges like their service, track record, your frequency and volume of trading.

If you are thinking to invest in the stock market, the first thing you should have is DEMAT account.
In my previous blog, I mentioned some of the DPs in India.

Approach your DP to open demat account.
Banks, Financial Institutions, and SEBI registered members (i.e. brokerage firms) can become DPs.
You can open demat account in India with
1. Brokerage firms: like Sharekhan, Indiabulls, kotak securities, motilal oswal, lkp securities etc.
2. Banks: like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, kotak Mahindra bank etc.Most of the banks provide this service.
Also there are many other registered DPs, which are providing these services.
To get a list of all registered DPs, visit the NSDL and CDSL websites.
https://nsdl.co.in/speede-dps.php#2
http://www.cdslindia.com/publication/dplist.jsp
We need to approach one of the above mentioned DPs to open a DEMAT account.

How to approach DPs?
By contacting them through their site or directly have a meeting with their representatives.If you are working in a large organization, some of DPs send their representatives to your office.
Once you approach your DP, you will be guided through the formalities of opening an account. You must fill up an account opening form and sign an agreement with your DP.DP should provide the investor with a copy of the agreement and schedule of charges for their future reference.

Note: A broker is separate from a DP. A broker is a member of the stock exchange, who buys and sells shares on his behalf and on behalf of his clients. A DP will just give you a DEMAT account to hold those shares. However,your broker can be your DP too.
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• Documents required to open DEMAT account:
  1.PAN Card (mandatory)
  2.Proof of identity (copy of any one proof):
  1) Passport
  2) Voter ID Card
  3) Driving license
  4) PAN card with photograph
  5) Identity card/document with applicant's photo
  3.Proof of address (copy of any one proof):
  1) Ration card
  2) Passport
  3) Voter ID card
  4) Driving license
  5) Bank passbook
  6) Verified copies of electricity bills/ residence telephone bills (not more than two months old)/ Leave and license agreement .
  7) Identity card/document with address, issued by Central/State government and its departments.
  4. Photographs (passport size 2 or more. depends on the DP)
  5. Bank account details (The one that needs to be linked to the DEMAT account)
  
  The above mentioned docs should be sufficient to open a DEMAT account.
  Above all PAN Card is extremely essential to open a demat.I will also advise you to carry original documents along with photocopies as they will ask the originals for verification.
  So get your all documents in place.
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  So we have to follow 3 steps to open demat account:>
  1. An account opening application form should be filled
  2.Signing an agreement with the depository participant
  3.Provide all the necessary documents (mentioned above)
  After verifying all the documents, the DP will open the account in the system and give a unique account number, which is also called BO ID (Beneficial Owner Identification number) and used for all future transactions.
  The charges of opening a demat account and maintaining it varies from DP to DP.
  
• Note: Depository and depository participants are two different entities.
  There are two depositories in India which provide dematerialization of securities.
  The National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and Central
  Securities Depository Limited (CSDL).
  
  
  
  

If you have ever been interested in learning about the stock market, this is your chance.
With growing share market awareness, more and more people now want to participate in the share market. To do this, we should understand the basic requirements to trade in shares.Let me take you along to the fantastic world of trading in shares.
So we will start with Demat Account.

A company listed on a stock exchange; have to offer the securities (e.g. shares) in both physical and dematerialized mode.
-Physical mode means actual certificates giving information about the shares of a company owned by a person.
-Dematerialization is the process of converting physical shares i.e. shares certificates into an electronic form.

Dematerialization of shares is optional and an investor can still hold shares in physical form.
But we have to demat the shares if we want to sell the shares through the Stock exchanges, because now a day’s almost all of the shares trading happens using the Demat mode of shares.
For trading through the Demat mode of shares, DEMAT account is required.
You need to maintain an account with a depository (for more info see note@ the end of this blog) if you intend to hold securities in demat form.

What is a DEMAT account?
DEMAT Account refers to a dematerialised account.
A DEMAT account is an account which we need for buying/selling the shares/stocks of a company and other equities like mutual funds, exchange traded funds - Gold ETFs etc.

Demat account hold equities, we cannot put money in demat account.
Let's say: If I buy shares like this: 50 of Infosys, 25 of Reliance, 15 of TCS. All these shares will be shown in my demat account.
So we don't have to possess any physical certificates showing that we own these shares. They are all held electronically in our account.
As we buy and sell the shares, they are adjusted in our account.
We have to contact the DPs (For information on DPs See note @the end of this blog), to open the demat account. He will give you all the required details for opening DEMAT.
After opening the demat account, the DP will provide you with periodic statements of holdings and transactions, just like a bank statement. However for sake of your own information,it is better to keep a record of the shares purchase pricesof on your own as this information is not included in the statement.

There are several DPs in India for e.g. ICICIDirect,Kotak,SBI,Sharekhan,Reliance Money,Motilal Oswal etc.



There are many Benefits of holding shares in DEMAT form:
Benefits:

-Immediate transfer of shares. Demat avoids the time consuming and complex process of getting shares transferred in the name of buyers.
-Elimination of risks associated with physical certificates such as bad delivery, fake securities (in postal delivery), etc.
- Reduction in paperwork involved in transfer of shares.
- Holding investments in shares, debts and mutual fund units in a single account.
-Also automatic credits of shares into demat account, in case if a company declares bonus shares or split of shares.
-It is also safe, secure and convenient.
-No stamp duty for transfer of shares
-Transmission of securities is done by DPs.We don’t have to interact with companies.

The next blog will be on other DEMAT details like How to open DEMAT Account.

Note: Like bank holds money in a Bank account, Depository holds securities (i.e. Shares, Bonds, Mutual fund units etc.) in an account.
The Depository provides its services to investors through its agents called depository participants (DPs).Banks, Financial Institutions, and SEBI registered members can become DPs.