(fake) day trading!

October 5, 2010 9:04 AM

Which are the best stock market-trade simulator websites for beginner investor/traders?

I have recently developed a big interest in the markets as well as the whole process of trading securities and derivatives. I also have spent a lot of time reading books and articles in regards to trading and the different strategies. I would like to spend a couple of months trying to learn how to trade using a simulator and thus I am looking for the best way to go about doing this. Can you guys recommend a simulator that does the following:

1) Provides real time information about the markets
2) Provides research data.
3) Takes out theoretical commission and fees (I want to be used to taking the hit)
4) The trades take a somewhat realistic time to clear.

Thanks in advance!

posted by The1andonly to Work & Money (9 answers total)

The think or swim client.
posted by Brent Parker at 9:10 AM on October 5, 2010

I like updown.com. They even have a contest for who makes the biggest theoretical percentage gain, and you can check other people's investment portfolios. You can create one with the amount you'd like to invest and see how it would have done in real life. A fun and educational way to test the waters, and test your tolerance for risk.
posted by shortyJBot at 9:11 AM on October 5, 2010

I've used wallstreetsurvivor.com. They do 1, 3 and 4 fairly well, mediocre on 2.
Fair warning though: sign up with one of your "bogus" e-mail addresses as they like to e-mail quite often (50/50 spam/real).
posted by Mister Fabulous at 9:34 AM on October 5, 2010

Response by poster: Question, a lot of these places have something like $100,000 to invest, how realistic would this be if you are an investor hoping to invest in the $5,000-$20,000 dollar range of your own money?
posted by The1andonly at 10:52 AM on October 5, 2010

Just make a lot of bad trades in ToS to get you down to the 20k range - it's not that hard =)
posted by Brent Parker at 11:03 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I know its not answering the question, but outside of testing the mechanics of order types and exotic instruments, you will learn basically nothing with simulators. Its an emotional game that simply cannot be replicated with monopoly money.
posted by H. Roark at 11:52 AM on October 5, 2010

Best answer: you can set a starting amount with a thinkorswim paper money account. You can even reset it and start over with a new dollar amount
posted by mulligan at 3:59 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I know it isn't exactly what you want, but the Iowa Electronic Markets are designed for students of markets. The stakes are low and the commissions don't exist. But there's still a bit you'd learn about placing orders and how the news (information) cycle affects markets.

They even have a section on research into investor behavior on their exchange. It's probably going to be far more enlightening for you to see the mistakes people make in markets than books about "trading strategies".
posted by pwnguin at 5:03 PM on October 5, 2010

One thing to watch for with paper accounts, sometimes the data is messed up. My trading partner and I used Think or Swim paper accounts for many months honing our trading plan, thinking we were making great trades but without checking each trade very thoroughly. The paper accounts behaved very differently from the real accounts. We ended up losing real cash because of this and had to stop and reconfigure our strategy. Assuming the TOS paper accounts were exactly like the real ones was a combination of laziness and trust on our part. They warn you about that when you sign on, too.
posted by acheekymonkey at 12:21 PM on October 7, 2010