Last Updated on 10 February, 2024 by Trading System
If you’re looking to learn to trade you’re going to need to put in a lot of time and effort into your new hobby. However, there are some tools you could use to make it easier, and trading games belong to that category.
Trading games are games that let you simulate trading and take part in the market action without risking any real money. Regardless of whether you look to only challenge yourself, or compete with others, there are a lot of good options on the market! Besides, using a trading game is a good way to practice trading and hone your skills in a safe environment.
In this article, we’re going to cover the benefits of trading games, how they should be used, and of course, also list a couple of games for you to try out!
Let’s begin!
Best Practices When Using Trading Games
In general, there are two categories of people who use trading games.
- Those who just want to have fun
- Those who want to practice their trading skills
Now, if you belong to category one, you might not care that much about the educational experience.
However, if you are into this to learn how to trade, then there are a couple of tips we’d like to share with you before we go on to the list of trading games.
- Take it seriously, and trade as if you were risking real money. Real trading builds a lot on discipline, and it’s important that you start practicing this right away.
- Some traders just reset their accounts once they’ve had a big losing trade. Don’t do that! You want to simulate real-world conditions as much as possible. In real trading, a drawdown needs to be recovered from with more profits. There is no reason why this shouldn’t apply to your trading game!
- In case the eagerness to win over your competitors takes the upper hand, you should consider disconnecting yourself from the social features of the trading game. You need to stay focused to trade well and not make stupid mistakes!
- Even if you’re making profits in simulated trading, you should be careful when switching over to live trading. Make sure to have a long positive track record, and don’t forget about the emotional challenges that come from trading real money!
The Best Trading Games
Here follows a list of some of the best trading games. Nearly all the listings also have social features, which means that you could invite friends and family over to compete!
1. Howthemarketworks
General Information: Howthemarketworks is completely free, and lets you create your very own custom stock trading game. The service has more than 400 000 users and is one of the bigger players on the market.
Users are not limited to just trading U.S markets, but also have access to stocks from countries like London, Hong Kong, Australia, and Tokyo. You may also trade futures, currencies, and options contracts. In other words, you have a lot to choose from!
Users can choose between the “fun mode” and the “realistic mode”. The difference is that the first allows orders to be placed anytime, while the other takes market opening hours into account.
Social features: Howthemarketworks lets users create a custom stock trading contest to which they can invite other players to join. You could impose challenging restrictions, like only allowing short selling, to make it more exciting.
There are also general contests you may enter where each user gets $25000 in virtual cash at the beginning of each month. The user who ends up with the most money when the month is over wins.
Howthemarketworks indeed is one of the better alternatives out there, and you will not be disappointed with it!
2. Wall Street Survivor
General Information: Wall street survivor is one of the oldest trading games out there, but still has a modern and sleek interface. It’s free and has more than 1,000,000 users.
In addition to its stock trading features, it also has a broad range of educational material, covering everything from investing to trading and how the market works.
Social features: You can trade stocks, and compete in leagues, where the best performers are awarded prices each month. In addition, you can create your own leagues and invite other players to join!
Being one of the oldest trading games on the market, wall street survivor still has managed to adapt well, and will have you entertained for a long time!
3. MarketWatch
General Information: Being a well-known website with market news and reports, Marketwatch also hosts its own trading game. It lets you trade American stocks, but not that much more.
Social features: As with the other options so far, MarketWatch lets you create your own contest and invite others to join your trading game! You can adjust the rules and length of every game to make it fit with your preferences. You may also chat and discuss trading related topics with the other players, which adds to the experience!
Marketwatch is a solid trading game that has everything that’s needed to remain entertaining for the casual user, while those looking to practice their skills will find it useful too!
4. Wealthbase
General Information: The wealthbase trading game is one of the newest options on the market and has all the features you’ll need to get started quickly. The platform is fast and smooth, and unlike the other trading games on the list, it’s also available as a mobile app for android and ios users.
Wealthbase lets you trade a variety of american stocks, as well as ETFs and mutuals funds, and provides close to real-time data feed.
Social features: Wealthbase has a lot of social features that help make it all a little more enjoyable. For example, you have access to a live feed of the stocks that are chosen by your competitors, where you may also chat a little if that suits your mood.
And just as with the competing solutions, you may set up your own trading contests and customize the rules to your liking!
Which One Should You Go For?
Out of these four, you cannot go wrong if you go with either howthemarketworks, Wall street survivor, or wealth base. All of these three are popular options with many features that should satisfy most people’s needs. They also have a lot of features when it comes to the social aspect of the experience, and provide great flexibility in how you can set up contests to make the experience more enjoyable.
However, if you’re looking to access the trading game through your smartphone, then wealthbase is the best option for you with its mobile app!
Conclusion
Playing a stock market game is a good way to just have fun, or actually improve your trading skills. It’s whatever you make of it, and could be both fun and educational!
The trading games presented in this article are all great options, and which one you decide to go for is much about personal preference!