A halal portfolio for beginners: 5 steps

"Which halal stock should I buy?" — the question we get most. We don't answer it: that would be investment advice, and we don't know your goals, time horizon or risk tolerance. What we can show is the process for building and maintaining a halal portfolio. Here are five steps.

Step 1. The right instrument: a real stock, not a CFD

Halal starts before the stock itself. If a broker sells you not the share but a contract on its price (a CFD), you don't own any part of the company — and leverage and overnight swap charges come on top. More: CFD vs a real stock.

On which brokers let you buy real US stocks from Uzbekistan: broker comparison. Check a broker's current terms yourself before opening an account — they change quickly.

Step 2. Screening: list first, then choose

Order matters: get the halal list first, then choose from within it. The reverse — finding a stock you like and then hoping it's "probably halal" — is the most common mistake.

Halal stocks list — stocks that passed screening under AAOIFI Standard No. 21. As of 5 October 2026, 1,384 of the 5,527 stocks we track had been found halal (the number changes daily — see the page for the current figure).
Every stock page (for example /halal/GOOGL) shows what was checked: the line of business, the three financial ratios, the formula itself and the date of the last check. Look at that date, not just the "halal" label.
Once you have an account, the Screener section of the dashboard has a ready-made "Halal only" filter — the full list, sortable by sector, market cap and other metrics. Free: create an account.

How screening works and the thresholds: methodology. Which sectors are excluded outright: blocked sectors.

A famous company isn't automatically halal. On the big tech names: Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia… are they halal?

Step 3. Diversification: don't put everything in one basket

The halal list carries a risk of its own: it leans toward certain sectors. Banks, insurers and other interest-based businesses drop out at the screening stage, as do heavily indebted companies. The result is a lot of technology at the top.

In numbers: as of 5 October 2026, 15 of the 50 largest stocks on the halal list were chipmakers (semiconductors) or their equipment suppliers, and those two sectors made up roughly a third of the combined market cap of those 50. Someone who simply buys the top five is betting almost entirely on one sector.

What to watch in practice:

Sector. Companies in several different sectors tend to fall together less than ten companies in one sector. That's what the Screener's "Sector" column is for.
One company — one position. Some companies have more than one share class (e.g. Alphabet's GOOG and GOOGL). Owning both isn't owning two companies.
Size of a single holding. We won't say what share of the portfolio a single position should be — that depends on your situation. But know in advance how much of your portfolio is affected if one company's status changes tomorrow (see the next step).
A halal ETF is a ready-made basket. If you'd rather not track dozens of stocks yourself, an ETF overseen by a Shariah board gives you diversification in a single purchase. How they differ: halal ETF guide.

Step 4. Purification: part of the dividend isn't yours

Even a company that passes screening keeps some cash in the bank and earns a little interest. AAOIFI permits this — provided you give your share of that impermissible part to charity.

The arithmetic is simple: dividend received × non-compliant income ratio. The ratio is ready on every stock page (the "Non-compliant income / total revenue" row) and in the dashboard Screener's "Income/purification" column. The formula, a worked example and the scholarly disagreement over non-dividend stocks: how purification is calculated.

A practical tip: each time a dividend arrives, write down the amount, the date and the ratio at that moment in one place. Reconstructing it at year end is hard. Purification is not zakat — zakat is calculated separately: dividends, zakat and tax.

Step 5. Re-check: halal is not a one-time stamp

A company that is halal today may take on new debt next quarter, pile up cash or buy a haram business — and drop off the list. The reasons in detail: why halal status changes.

A simple routine:

After each quarterly earnings season, open the page of every stock you hold and check its status and last-check date. When the season is and what to watch: earnings season guide.
Weekly: our Telegram channel (@limitupuz) posts on Saturdays the stocks added to and removed from the halal list over the past week, with the reasons (no post in a week with no changes).
Monthly: the blog publishes a review of halal list changes — for example, the September issue.
When adding a new stock: the dashboard Watchlist warns you if you add a stock that isn't halal. But only at the moment of adding — keep an eye on your existing list yourself.

If a status changes, don't panic: look at the reason first. "Undetermined" usually means a filing is late — it doesn't mean "haram". If a stock really does drop out of screening, scholars give differing guidance on when and how to sell and whether income from that period should be purified. Ask your own scholar.