I'm Shivashankar — Chennai-based swing trader and educator. I teach a rule-based system built on Point & Figure charting and confirmed weekly closes, so you can screen the Nifty 500 without staring at charts all day.
This is a genuine, self-funded educational website — no card details are ever asked for outside of the secure Razorpay checkout, and there are no random "buy this stock now" messages here. My motto is simple: teach you to read charts and pick stocks on your own — not hand you picks to follow blindly. This is built for serious, self-motivated learners who want a real skill, not a shortcut. If you have any doubt at all, email me directly at learnpnf.shiva@gmail.com before enrolling — happy to answer anything.
Swing trader and educator based in Chennai, trading the Nifty 500 on the weekly timeframe with a rule-based screening process.
I'm Shivashankar — by profession, I've spent almost two decades in the aviation sector. The markets came into my life separately, starting in 2010, and the way I approach them today has been shaped by years of trial, error, and gradually cutting away what didn't work.
I started where most people do — mutual funds, treating the market as something to invest in quietly and check on once in a while. Over time, that curiosity pulled me toward individual stocks, and I began reading charts through price action — trying to understand not just what a stock did, but why it moved the way it did.
Somewhere along that path, I came across Point & Figure charting — a method that strips away time and daily noise entirely, plotting only genuine price reversals. I remember how different it felt: quieter, clearer, almost stubbornly indifferent to the day-to-day chatter that usually clouds a trader's judgment. That's what I still call it today — the noiseless chart.
My trading style since then has been a combination of two things: reading weekly price action for context, and Point & Figure for structure. That combination eventually became the Structural Strength Score (SSS) — a composite 0–100 reading I built myself in Pine Script, combining market structure, trend alignment, and momentum into one number, firing only on confirmed Friday closes.
Everything I teach — the Point & Figure course, the SSS system, the weekly screening workflow — comes from the process I still run on my own capital every week, refined over more than a decade of actually being in the market, not just studying it from the sidelines.
Weekly reads I've published on TradingView, pasted in as they go live — same charts, same annotations, nothing re-typed.
Point & Figure charting strips out time and noise, leaving only price reversals. My method layers two more filters on top of that same discipline.
Point & Figure columns and pivot-based higher-highs / higher-lows tell you whether a stock is actually trending, independent of how noisy the daily candles look.
A stacked moving-average read confirms direction, and RSI confirms the stock has the momentum to follow through — both smoothed so single-week spikes don't trigger false signals.
Nothing fires until the weekly candle actually closes on Friday. No mid-week noise, no repainting — the score only updates on barstate.isconfirmed.
Before any strategy, you need to actually read a chart. These fundamentals are free to learn — the course goes further, combining them into a full weekly system.
Every candle shows four numbers at a glance: open, high, low, close. The thick part is the body — the gap between open and close. The thin lines above and below are wicks — the extremes the price touched but didn't hold. A green/blue body means the close was higher than the open (bullish); red means the opposite (bearish).
Beyond single candles, patterns formed by two or three candles together — like an engulfing pattern or a morning star — hint at potential reversals. This is the alphabet of price action; almost everything else in charting builds on it.
Go deeper — free, via Zerodha Varsity →P&F strips out time entirely — no daily candles, no gaps for weekends or quiet days. It only plots genuine price reversals as columns of X's (rising) and O's (falling). A new X or O only gets added once price moves a minimum amount, called the box size — and a new column only starts once price reverses by a set number of boxes.
The result is what I call the noiseless chart — you see genuine structure, not every small wiggle. It's why P&F suits people who can't (or don't want to) stare at charts all day.
These basics teach you to read a chart. The course teaches you to act on one — combining P&F structure with weekly price action and the Structural Strength Score to actually screen and time entries across the Nifty 500, every week, on your own.
See what the course adds →A complete, self-paced course covering Point & Figure construction, box size and reversal logic, and how I combine P&F structure with the SSS system to screen the Nifty 500 every week — plus price-volume breakout analysis, stock selection for long-term compounders, and practical trade planning, so you can approach the market from more than one angle.
Set the right expectation: this isn't a get-rich-quick promise. It's a process for building wealth over time — whether through SIPs in stocks and mutual funds, or direct stock investing — using structure and discipline instead of guesswork.
Limited-time launch price — all-inclusive, no hidden fees.
Everything below is included in the ₹2,999 fee — no extra chapters locked behind a higher tier. I teach both Point & Figure and price-volume based methods, so you get more than one lens to read the market.
Why I teach both Point & Figure and price-volume analysis together, and how they complement rather than compete with each other.
How P&F strips out time and daily noise, how to set box size correctly, and how X's and O's actually get plotted.
Reversal counts, how a new column starts, and the handful of P&F patterns that actually matter for weekly swing trading.
Reading raw price behavior — support, resistance, and how price reacts at key levels, independent of any indicator.
Using volume to confirm or question a price move — why a breakout on weak volume deserves more caution than one.
Identifying genuine long-term breakout and breakdown structures, and separating them from false moves.
What separates a stock worth holding for years from one worth a quick trade — practical, criteria-based selection, not stock tips.
How the 0–100 SSS score combines market structure, trend alignment, and momentum into a single weekly reading.
The exact weekly routine to screen the Nifty 500 using TradingView, from Friday's close to Monday's watchlist.
Building a written plan for every trade before you enter — entry, stop, target, and the condition that invalidates the idea.
Sizing positions by risk percentage, not gut feeling — and why this matters more than the entry itself.
What actually separates a stock that doubles from one that compounds five times over — and why chasing the label alone is a mistake.
Rules for entering and exiting on confirmed signals only — avoiding the mid-week noise that derails most traders.
A single, repeatable weekly checklist that ties P&F, price-volume, and stock selection into one simple routine.
Step-by-step screenshots to set up your own P&F chart and SSS indicator exactly as shown in the course.
Hand-charting worksheets so you understand P&F construction before relying on any automated tool.
A ready-to-use scanner link to help you shortlist candidates faster instead of screening the whole Nifty 500 by hand.
A space to ask questions directly and get them answered, rather than working through the material entirely alone.
Notes on personal finance, market structure, and rule-based trading — written for people building wealth alongside a day job, not chasing tips.
Trading well and managing money well are different skills — here's where most traders leave money on the table outside the chart.
Read article →Too little and one bad month wrecks your plan. Too much and inflation quietly eats it. Here's how to find the right number.
Read article →It's not a rivalry — it's a question of what money you have and how it arrived. Here's how to decide without the debate noise.
Read article →It's not just about getting a loan approved — your score quietly follows you into credit cards, rentals, and interest rates.
Read article →Same ₹1.5 lakh limit, very different lock-ins and returns. Here's how the common choices actually stack up against each other.
Read article →36-48% annual interest is common — and the minimum-payment trap can quietly stretch a small bill into years of debt.
Read article →Most traders spend all their attention on entries and exits, and almost none on what happens to the money before it reaches the market and after it leaves. That's backwards. A mediocre trading system with disciplined money habits around it usually outperforms a great system with sloppy financial habits around it.
If you're swing trading the Nifty 500 on a weekly timeframe, here are five habits worth building outside the chart.
Weekly swing positions can stay open for several weeks or months. If a chunk of that capital is actually your emergency fund or next year's school fees in disguise, you'll exit trades early out of anxiety, not because the structure broke down. Keep trading capital separate, and keep it capital you can genuinely leave alone.
Decide your per-trade risk — a fixed percentage of capital, not a fixed rupee amount you feel like risking that day — before you're staring at a chart that looks perfect. Conviction is exactly when position sizing discipline breaks down for most traders.
If you're profitable, resist the urge to treat every green week as spendable income. Building a habit of moving a fixed portion of profits into a separate account — long-term investments, a repair fund, anything not tied to the market — protects you from the natural pull to scale up spending the moment results improve.
Brokerage, STT, exchange charges, and slippage quietly eat into weekly swing returns more than most traders realize, especially at smaller position sizes. Once a quarter, add these up separately from your raw profit and loss. If costs are eating a large share of your gains, that's a sizing or frequency problem, not a charting problem.
Your portfolio isn't just your trading account. Insurance, an emergency fund, and long-term investments outside the market you actively trade all matter more to your actual financial security than any single week's signals. A rule-based system like Point & Figure with a Structural Strength Score helps you stay disciplined in the market — it can't substitute for a financial plan around it.
If the structural side of this — reading Point & Figure charts and screening the Nifty 500 on confirmed weekly closes — is the part you want to get right, that's exactly what the P&F charting course walks through step by step.
None of this replaces professional financial advice for your specific situation — for tax planning, insurance needs, or overall portfolio structure, talk to a qualified financial planner. But the five habits above cost nothing to start and compound quietly in the background while your trading system does its job.
The standard advice is "3 to 6 months of expenses." That's a reasonable starting point, but it's not the same for everyone, and getting it wrong in either direction has a real cost.
Someone with a stable salaried job, dual income in the household, and no dependents can often get away with closer to 3 months. Someone with irregular income — freelancers, business owners, or traders whose monthly cash flow genuinely varies — is better served by 6 to 9 months. The point of the fund is to cover the gap between "income stopped" and "income resumed," and that gap is simply longer and less predictable for irregular earners.
This money's job is to be there when you need it, not to grow. A sweep-in fixed deposit or a liquid mutual fund are the usual choices — both give you same-day or next-day access without the volatility of equity. Keeping an emergency fund in stocks defeats its purpose: the one time you're likely to need it is often when markets are also under stress.
The first is keeping too little — treating a credit card limit as a substitute for real savings, which works until it doesn't. The second, less talked about, is keeping too much idle cash and calling it an emergency fund when really it's just uninvested money losing value to inflation every year. Once you've hit your target number, the excess belongs in longer-term investments, not sitting there for comfort.
If 6 months of expenses feels far away, don't wait to start investing until it's fully built. Split new savings — a portion toward the emergency fund until it's complete, the rest toward your regular investment plan. An emergency fund is meant to protect your other financial goals, not delay them indefinitely.
This gets debated online as if one is universally better. In practice, the right choice depends on where the money came from and how you're likely to behave once it's invested — not on which one wins in backtests.
A SIP invests a fixed amount at regular intervals, averaging your purchase price across market ups and downs over time. A lump sum puts everything to work on day one. Mathematically, in a market that trends upward over the long run, lump sum tends to outperform SIP simply because more money is invested for longer. But that comparison assumes you'd have actually stayed invested through the volatility — which is where the real-world answer gets more interesting.
If the money is your regular monthly savings — income you haven't received yet — SIP is the only real option, and that's fine. It also suits anyone who knows they'd panic-sell a lump sum after a 15% drop. The averaging effect isn't really about beating the market; it's about removing the temptation to time it.
If you receive a windfall — a bonus, matured FD, inheritance, or sale proceeds — sitting on it in a savings account "waiting for the right time" often costs more in lost growth than any short-term dip would. If your goal horizon is long (7+ years) and you're genuinely comfortable holding through volatility, deploying it as a lump sum, or in 3-4 tranches over a few months if it eases your nerves, usually beats parking it entirely.
Many people do both — a lump sum for windfalls, an ongoing SIP for regular savings. The "SIP vs lump sum" framing suggests you have to pick one philosophy forever. You don't; the money's source should decide the method, not the other way round.
Most people only think about their credit score when they're applying for a loan. By then, it's often too late to fix anything quickly — the habits that built the score took months or years to form.
CIBIL scores in India range from 300 to 900. Above 750 is generally considered good and gets you the better interest rate tiers; below 650 usually means higher rates or rejected applications outright. The gap between a 650 and a 780 on a home loan can mean lakhs of rupees in extra interest paid over the loan's lifetime.
Payment history carries the most weight — a single missed credit card or EMI payment can drop your score noticeably, and it takes months of on-time payments to recover. Credit utilization is next: using more than 30% of your total available credit limit regularly signals risk to lenders, even if you pay it off in full every month. The length of your credit history, the mix of credit types you hold, and how often you apply for new credit all play smaller roles.
Beyond loans, a poor score can affect credit card approvals and limits, the security deposit some landlords ask for, and in a few cases, even employment screening for finance-sector roles. It's a number that sits in the background of far more decisions than people expect.
Pay the full statement amount, not just the minimum due — carrying a balance doesn't help your score, it just costs you 36%+ annual interest. Don't close your oldest credit card even if you stop using it regularly, since it contributes to your credit history length. And check your report at least once a year through CIBIL or another credit bureau — errors do happen, and they don't fix themselves.
Section 80C lets you deduct up to ₹1.5 lakh a year from your taxable income across a range of instruments. The limit is shared across all of them combined, not per instrument — so which ones you pick into matters more than people realize.
The shortest lock-in among all 80C options at 3 years. Returns are market-linked through equity mutual funds, so they can be the highest of the group over the long run, but they carry market risk and gains above ₹1.25 lakh a year are taxed under long-term capital gains rules.
Government-backed with a 15-year lock-in (partial withdrawals allowed from year 7). Interest is announced quarterly by the government and is entirely tax-free — principal, interest, and maturity amount all fall under the EEE (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt) category. Lower returns than equity historically, but zero market risk.
A 5-year lock-in with fixed, predictable returns. Safe, but the interest earned is fully taxable at your income slab, which quietly reduces the real benefit compared to PPF's tax-free interest.
Premiums for term or endowment policies also qualify under 80C. The common mistake here is buying an expensive endowment or ULIP policy mainly to "use up" the 80C limit — insurance and investment are different jobs, and mixing them usually means you overpay for underwhelming cover and underwhelming returns at once.
If you have 3+ years before you'd need the money and can handle market movement, ELSS typically makes the most sense for the growth portion. PPF works well as the safe, long-horizon anchor of your 80C allocation. Keep insurance premiums to what you need for actual life cover — a separate term plan, not a savings-linked policy — and let the rest of your 80C limit go toward instruments picked for their own merit, not their tax benefit alone.
Credit cards are a convenience tool that quietly turns into one of the most expensive forms of borrowing available if you don't pay the full bill every cycle. The interest rates involved are easy to underestimate because they're rarely stated as clearly as a loan's.
Most Indian credit cards charge between 36% and 48% annually on any carried balance — far higher than personal loans, and nowhere close to what any legitimate investment reliably returns. If you're paying 3-4% "monthly interest," that's the number being quoted, and it compounds.
Paying only the minimum due (often 5% of the outstanding bill) feels manageable, but it's designed to keep you in debt for a long time. On a ₹50,000 bill, paying only the minimum each month while continuing to use the card can stretch repayment into years, with the interest paid eventually exceeding the original amount spent.
Interest is typically calculated daily on the outstanding balance, and new purchases often stop earning any interest-free period once you're carrying a balance — meaning every new swipe starts accruing interest immediately, not after the usual grace period. This is why a manageable bill can snowball quickly.
Two common approaches: the "avalanche" method pays off the highest-interest debt first, saving the most money overall. The "snowball" method pays off the smallest balance first for a quicker psychological win, then rolls that payment into the next. Either beats doing nothing. If the balance is large, a personal loan or balance transfer at a much lower interest rate to pay off the card, followed by disciplined repayment, is often cheaper than letting it sit on the card.
Treat a credit card strictly as a payment method, not a credit line — spend only what you could pay in cash today, and clear the full statement amount every single cycle. The rewards and cashback are only a genuine benefit if you never pay interest to get them.
Bite-sized, practical knowledge — the kind of thing worth knowing before you make your next financial decision.
Divide 72 by your expected annual return to estimate how many years it takes your money to double. At 12% returns, that's roughly 6 years.
Money sitting idle in a savings account earning 3-4% is losing real purchasing power if inflation runs at 5-6% — even though the number on screen never goes down.
Beyond the ₹1.5 lakh under 80C, the National Pension System offers an additional ₹50,000 deduction under Section 80CCD(1B) — often overlooked.
At 3 years, ELSS funds lock in your money for less time than PPF (15 years), NSC, or tax-saving FDs (5 years) — while still qualifying for the same deduction.
A healthy 30-year-old can often get ₹1 crore of pure life cover for a fraction of what an equivalent endowment or ULIP policy premium would cost.
Relying solely on employer-provided health insurance leaves a gap the moment you switch jobs or lose one — a personal policy keeps cover continuous.
A "12% return" only means something after you subtract inflation. Always think in real (inflation-adjusted) terms when comparing long-term growth.
Spreading across asset classes that don't move together can reduce your portfolio's volatility without necessarily reducing its expected long-term return.
A 1% difference in a mutual fund's expense ratio can cost you lakhs over 20-30 years — it's deducted from your returns every single year, not once.
Unlike some equity gains, fixed deposit interest is added entirely to your income and taxed at your slab rate — there's no indexation benefit.
Debt that funds an appreciating asset or income (like a reasonable home loan) behaves very differently from debt that funds consumption (like credit card spending).
If equities rally hard, your portfolio can drift from 60% equity to 75% without you doing anything — an annual rebalance brings it back to your original plan.
A simple starting budget: 50% of income to needs, 30% to wants, 20% to savings and debt repayment. Not perfect for everyone, but a solid default.
Someone investing ₹5,000/month from age 25 can end up ahead of someone investing ₹10,000/month starting at age 35 — time in the market matters more than most people assume.
Liquid funds or sweep-in FDs, not equities — the point is access when you need it, not growth while you wait.
Gold has historically held up during equity market stress, which makes it a useful diversifier — but it isn't designed to be your primary growth asset.
Thousands of crores sit unclaimed in Indian bank accounts, insurance policies, and mutual funds due to missing or outdated nominee details. Update yours after any major life change.
A Systematic Withdrawal Plan from a mutual fund can be structured more tax-efficiently than relying on dividend payouts for regular income — worth comparing before you decide.
Regularly using more than 30% of your total credit limit — even if you pay in full — can quietly drag your credit score down over time.
Small recurring expenses add up when invested instead of spent — but the bigger wins usually come from fixing large recurring costs, not just daily coffee.
General information for educational purposes, not personalized financial advice. Tax rules and limits change — verify current figures before acting, and consult a qualified financial or tax advisor for your specific situation.
Plan your investments and withdrawals before you commit real money. Adjust the sliders and see results update instantly.
Estimate only. Actual market returns vary and are never guaranteed.
Estimate only. Actual market returns vary and are never guaranteed.
Simulated month by month at a constant rate. Real returns fluctuate.
These are estimates for planning purposes only, not a guarantee of returns. Market-linked investments are subject to risk.
Straight answers to what people usually ask before joining.
No. I am not a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser or Research Analyst. This is education only — you're learning to read Point & Figure charts and the Structural Strength Score system so you can screen and decide for yourself. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any specific stock.
Yes. The course starts from Point & Figure basics — box size, reversals, and how columns form — before moving into the weekly screening workflow. No prior charting experience is assumed.
No. The method is built specifically for weekly swing trading, with signals confirmed only on Friday's close. If you're looking for intraday or options strategies, this isn't the right fit.
The screening workflow is designed to run once a week, after Friday's close — not something you need to watch daily. Most students spend an hour or two reviewing charts over the weekend.
The full lesson book, a quick-reference cheat sheet, practice worksheets, and a step-by-step TradingView setup guide — delivered by email within 24 hours of payment, with lifetime access to updates. If you don't already have a trading and demat account, I'll also help you get one set up.
Reach out directly at learnpnf.shiva@gmail.com before purchasing if you're unsure — happy to answer questions upfront so you know exactly what you're getting.
The screening workflow taught in the course is built around the Nifty 500 universe, but Point & Figure charting itself is a general technique — once you understand it, you can apply it to any liquid stock or index you follow.
Send a note and I'll get back to you directly — no bots, no auto-drip sequence.
Or email me directly at learnpnf.shiva@gmail.com
Messages come straight to your inbox.
I am not a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser or Research Analyst. Educational content only. Nothing on this site is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Trading in equities carries risk of loss; past performance of any method does not guarantee future results. Please do your own research or consult a SEBI-registered investment adviser before trading.
Last updated: July 2026
This policy explains how Shivashankar ("I", "me") collects, uses, and protects information from visitors to this website.
When you use the contact form, I collect the name, email address, and message you provide. When you enroll in the course, payment is processed securely by Razorpay, which collects the billing details needed to complete your transaction — I do not see or store your card, UPI, or bank details directly; Razorpay handles this under its own security standards.
Information submitted through the contact form is used only to respond to your enquiry. Information collected during course enrollment is used to deliver the course materials to you and to communicate about your purchase. I do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.
This site uses Formspree to process contact form submissions, Razorpay to process payments, and Google Fonts to load website typography. Each of these services may process limited technical data (such as IP address) as part of standard web delivery — please refer to their respective privacy policies for details.
This site does not use tracking or advertising cookies. Standard technical cookies may be set by third-party services listed above as part of their normal operation.
Contact form submissions and enrollment records are retained only as long as necessary to respond to enquiries, deliver course materials, and maintain basic business records.
You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of any personal information you've shared by emailing learnpnf.shiva@gmail.com.
This policy may be updated from time to time. Any changes will be reflected on this page with an updated "last updated" date.
Questions about this policy can be sent to learnpnf.shiva@gmail.com.