What is NIFTY 50?

What does NIFTY 50 mean in practice?

It is a weighted basket of 50 of the largest and most liquid stocks listed on the NSE, spread across sectors. Because it moves with the broad market, it is the most commonly quoted measure of how Indian equities are doing.

An index itself is a number and cannot be bought directly. Exposure usually comes through futures, options or index funds. That distinction matters for any tool: charting and testing an index is different from being able to trade it.

A worked example

Illustrative only: if the index moves from 24,000 to 24,240, it has risen 1%, whichever of its constituents drove the change.

How to read or test it

Remember what you are actually testing. A chart of the index is a number, and a real position would be in futures, options or a fund, each with its own costs, lot sizes and expiry behaviour. Use the index for studying structure and for paper trading ideas, and look into the instrument you would really trade before drawing conclusions about profitability. Pay attention to session times and to event days. Check the contract specifications, tick size and trading hours of the instrument you actually have in mind, and see how its costs differ from those of a simple chart.

How AKQX handles NIFTY 50

AKQX offers charts and paper trading for NIFTY 50. It offers no real-money execution for Indian equities, and order-flow views for them are limited and in beta.

See Market data and integrations for the feature page.

A common mistake

Assuming a chart of an index is something you can trade directly.

Related terms