It is a very good thing that you want to educate yourself about investing and stock market. "Investing is simple, but not easy." - Warren Buffett Without bothering about financial jargon...Let's me try to explain things in a very simple terms. “In the Beginning There Was Idea….” Every business starts as an idea which is generally a new thing and in most of the cases adds some value in some existing thing and generates cash flow in the process. But to convert the abstract concept of idea into a concrete business it requires financing. How an idea can be financed? One option is to get money with a promise of giving extra as per the pertinent Interest Rate. It's pretty straightforward and simple to understand. You give me some money I will give you back with some additional money after a fixed period of time...Simple.. Another form of financing comes through Stocks. Now, this one is quite interesting and one of the greatest invention after the concept of Money itself. Let’s try to look at this more closely... You are willing to give money without a promise of anything in return. No Interest Rates...…No Security of Principal….just a faith in the business ….. Seriously….How it works then!! This is an astonishing thing as well as something that baffled many and make it difficult for them to fathom. Let’s try to grasp them in bite-size pieces… A business is divided into many parts and those parts are called Stocks of the business and people can buy those parts in the initial public offering (IPO). After that …over the time these stocks are traded at a place called Stock Market based on ‘perception’ about their growth in future the price changes over time. Now the stocks i.e. the part of businesses are available to buy only when someone is selling them.Which brings us to the basic question: Why would someone sell their stocks? There could be several reasons: 1. Person needs money. 2. Person has a feeling based on some information that the price will go down in future. Why the stock price changes? It’s just based on demand and supply. If more people want to buy a stock (demand) than sell it (supply), then the price moves up. Conversely, if more people wanted to sell a stock than buy it, there would be greater supply than demand, and the price would fall. This is all what stock market in nutshell other things are just details. For the basics I would suggest you to first go through one of the very interesting and useful course on Finance on Coursera Page on coursera.org It helps you understand the basics and imbibe them into your thinking process which helps while you go through the advance concepts later. "Intelligent investor" (The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) (Collins Business Essentials): Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig, Warren E. Buffett: 9780060555665: Amazon.com: Books) and "Security Analysis" (Security Analysis: Sixth Edition, Foreword by Warren Buffett (Security Analysis Prior Editions): Benjamin Graham, David Dodd, Warren Buffett: 8601404298264: Amazon.com: Books ) books are a must read for anyone planning to invest their money in any Stock Market of the world. I agree that it is a long and tedious process but believe me it's enjoyable and worth every second that you spend and do remember that there is no one who will be more concerned and responsible about your money than you. It takes patience and some amount of training and discipline to control your nerves while investing in Stock Market. Do some virtual investing and only after you are comfortable with the concept of investing in stock market then only you should try to bell the cat. You can have a look at Nivesh Niti - Android Apps on Google Play that is specifically designed for Indian Stock Market and has a list of some of the stocks selected according to the principles of Value Investing. Best of luck and have a great investing journey..... :)