Wealth is built slowly, not traded quickly.

A placement is money raised straight from investors. Primary means new shares or bonds given out at the issue price. Private means a small chosen group of investors instead of a public issue.

1. The company needs moneyTo grow, to repay old borrowing, or to buy another company. It appoints a merchant banker to raise it.
2. Price and conditionsWhat kind of paper, for how long, with what conditions, at a price serious buyers will actually accept.
3. Filling the bookA public issue asks thousands of people. A private placement calls twelve investors who can each write a real cheque this week.
4. Allotment, then listingThe paper is given out at the issue price, before the open market takes its cut, and usually lists later so you have a way to sell.

Private equity means buying a real share of a company that is not listed on the exchange, and then working for years to make that share worth more.

1. FindThe good private deals never appear on any screen. They come through owners we have known for decades.
2. CheckAccounts, customers, how the company is run, and the owner's record. For listed companies this comes free. Here you do the work yourself.
3. TermsShares or a convertible, a seat on the board, protection if more money is raised later, and how you get out. The paperwork decides who is protected when plans slip.
4. HoldA seat at the board, more money if the company needs it, and finally a sale, a transfer to another investor, or a listing. The value is built here, after the cheque is signed.

Pre-IPO means buying shares in the gap between a company's last private funding round and the day it lists on the exchange.

1. Finding the sharesBlocks come from early investors, from employees selling their ESOPs, and from owners. Always through people, never through a screen.
2. Checking the companyPrivate numbers, real checks on how it is run, and an honest view of when, or whether, the listing will actually happen.
3. Agreeing a priceThere is no order book here. The price is negotiated. What you pay decides almost everything about how this ends.
4. Listing, and the lock-inSEBI does not allow pre-IPO shareholders to sell for six months after listing. Your plan has to survive those six months, including a weak start.

Value broking means the advice comes first. Research builds the case, a dealer who knows your account decides how much to buy, and the trade is the last step rather than the product.

1. Research firstWhat to buy, why now, and what would show the idea is wrong. Every holding starts as a reason written down.
2. Size it rightHow much of your money one idea deserves depends on your goals, not on how good the idea sounds. Getting the size right is what saves portfolios.
3. Buy patientlyWe work the order instead of dumping it, and use futures or options to protect the position where it needs protecting.
4. Review the reasonThe price moved, but did the reason change? If the reason holds, you sit tight. If it has broken, you sell. That one question is the whole discipline.

A mutual fund puts your money together with other people's into one regulated portfolio, priced every day. For most goals it is the simplest road into the market and the easiest one to stay on.

1. Choose the type firstEquity for money you will not touch for years. Debt for money you need soon. Hybrid for in between. This one choice decides most of the result.
2. Give every fund a jobA short list where each fund does something different. Forty funds usually means owning the same companies four times over.
3. Pay every monthA fixed sum each month buys more units when prices fall and fewer when they rise. The falls quietly work in your favour.
4. Review once a yearA fund is replaced when it stops doing its job. Not because of one bad month in the headlines.

Above SEBI's minimums more becomes available. In PMS a professional manages shares that are held in your own name. An AIF pools money from large investors into strategies a mutual fund is not allowed to run.

1. PMS, decisions handed overYou sign an agreement and the manager buys and sells within it. Faster, and free of your own hesitation.
2. PMS, decisions keptEvery trade asks you first. Slower, but nothing happens without you.
3. AIF, category I and IIPooled money for young companies, private lending and real assets. Long lock-ins, large amounts, and deals you cannot otherwise reach.
4. AIF, category IIILong-short and other complicated strategies in listed shares, which a mutual fund is not permitted to run.

Fixed income is lending money on a written contract. NCDs and bonds pay fixed interest on fixed dates. MLDs pay by a formula linked to an index. You give up some return in exchange for certainty, and each product strikes that bargain differently.

1. Check who you are lending toThe rating, the conditions in the document, and the owner's record. Interest you cannot collect is not interest.
2. Spread the maturity datesPut the money into bonds maturing in one, two, three and four years instead of betting on where rates go.
3. Collect the interestThe money arrives on dates written into the contract. You can run a household on it. No share can promise that.
4. Reinvest as each one maturesIf rates have gone up, the money that matures next year goes back in at the higher rate. If they have fallen, the other three are still locked at the old one.

Wealth building is matching your money to the things you actually want, and then staying with the plan in the years when staying is hardest.

1. UnderstandWhat the money is for, when you will need it, and how big a fall you can sleep through. The plan is built from your life, not from a product list.
2. Put it in the right placesShares for money you will not need for years. Bonds and deposits for what you need soon. Insurance for the bad day. Private deals where the amount allows.
3. Stay with itRegular reviews, some rebalancing, and one phone call in every crash that keeps you invested. Nobody notices this part in a good year. It is worth the most in a bad one.