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TradingSim lets you practice day trading (and I ask if it's any good)
TradingSim is an Flash-based day trading simulator. You can practice buying and selling all sorts of securities without involving (and risking) any money. Some might say I should have put this under our "time-wasters" category, but I think it can actually be a useful tool for people who are looking into day trading (that's how I found it).
The market for trading simulators (and training in day trading in general) is hectic, almost seedy. There is so much junk and hype, that it's very difficult to tell what's good and what's a scam. The key thing which makes me wonder about this tool is that I don't understand its business model. How do these guys plan to make money?
If any of our readers are active day traders, do share in the comments: What are the best tools you've used to practice "paper trading" (no money involved)?
Be warned, though: Since this is such a scammy subject, I will be particularly easy on the ban-hammer. No spammy links, whatsoever. Post only tools you've actually used and that you're not affiliated with.
Comments
11
Subscribe to commentsJsterMar 4th 2010 10:10AM
https://www.thinkorswim.com/tos/displayPage.tos?webpage=paperMoney
VOILA!
idiotMar 4th 2010 10:35AM
updown.com is great
numerwanMar 4th 2010 10:36AM
Very cool! and also very cool Jster... ive been looking for tools like this since i havnt been trading much...
CarlosMar 4th 2010 10:49AM
When I was in high school, my math teacher had a section in which we were learning about the stock market and how to trade/buy/sell stocks, bonds, etc. and we used Yahoo! Finance to keep track of our "investments" and to learn about the different sectors in the financial world.
PaulMar 4th 2010 2:56PM
The business model is quite simple: the data that this product generates in real-time would be valuable for people actually trading on the market if they can get a large amount of users.
lassiMar 4th 2010 1:08PM
the problem with playing like that is that in the real world your action will cause some kind of reaction.
I would recommend using a simulator that mimicks the trading platform you've planning to do the real trading on and use it to mainly practice user interface handling. DO NOT use it for building confidence in your trading skills, you might just as well download a-train from some abandonware site and play with it's stock system(or railroad tycoon, which doesn't suck so much as a-train so you don't notice stocks anyhow).
though, if you know what you're buying and when and why.. you don't need a simulator, playing the up and down curves is a fools game - many fools happen to be mathematicians who have been greedely trying to foresee the market, and making a lot of money selling that software, also, some of them don't make a lot of money but thats the only sw they could come up with.
the market has always been the result of real world happenings, a ship sinking, a war starting, automation killing an entire field of industry, ineffiency of sticking with badly cloned technology, an incompetent ceo who later turns into a total crook, etc.
what you need is the need for information in your head, read the newspapers, read the blogs - trust no one and especially don't trust the same analysts as everyone else(hint: isuppli sucks in their info sourcing).
also, sometimes there just isn't a good place to put your money into. but if you took loan money to invest you HAVE TO put it somewhere, because they can't walk away they in turn then get dumped with not so good investments, which makes the whole thing a disaster for everyone.
JimMar 4th 2010 9:08PM
Day trading is a sham. Evidence? Ask around and see if there is any day-trader been in business for more than 10 years. Someone that can verify that. If they say they have, they are lying. It's a losing proposition. Only possible way to make money day-trading is through some arbitrary advantage e.g. market maker. You have to be REAL close to the action. People spends MILLIONS on setting up an entire building with the fastest computers closest to the stock market and trade in microseconds. But that is an arbitrary advantage. The average person WILL lose. Long term is the key for the average person. Please learn from others. And listen to the richest person in the world (Warren Buffet, he probably knows a thing or two), day trading is for suckers. Want real money making advice? Start with "Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham (Warren Buffets teacher at Columbia University). Sorry for the long post, but I could go on for while!
JsterMar 5th 2010 12:11PM
Its not a sham. I know ordinary people that have been doing it successfully for quite some time.
VashMar 20th 2010 2:31AM
It's not a sham but certainly not for the average investor. Go for the slow steadys starting out.
FaithMar 6th 2010 9:03PM
This site rocks! I have been searching for a simulator like this forever. I have used the other simulators but none of them provide me with the ability to trade from the charts on a intraday basis, using tick data! The time and sales and level 1 data are very good to have; however, it would be nice to see level 2 data (I think they probably didnt include it because it so expensive to get). I have used updown and thinkorswim, and others like optionmonster....but they do not compare to this. They are geared for a different audience. If you are serious about day trading, this is a good app to use. I have used tradestation before to day trade and tradingsim is the closest thing I have seen to that. Problem I had with tradestation was that it wouldnt allow me to select previous days and it would only allow me to simulate trading during market hours. I needed it after the market so I could practice new strategies without interfering with my day trading activities during the day.
In any case, thank you very much,Erez, for bringing this to my attention.
DavidMar 5th 2010 1:29PM
Jim's comments are ridiculous. That's like what people said in the 80's, that pc word processors would never replace the typewriter. How many typewriters do you see today? Day trading is still in it's infancy. IT wasn't that long ago that non-commercial trading could only be done by calling you broker and you were dependent t on that broker for all data on stocks.
I personally know several people that have been doing day trading for years and have been doing very well. In fact I always thought that my job was more secure than them day trading. Well last year when I lost my job and most of them were able to still make money despite the market I realized that I was wrong about the security.
In order to be successful in day trading you need to know what you’re doing. Just like learning to drive a car you need to practice. That being said I can’t think of a better way to “practice” trading than using TradeSim. That way your bad choices are not costly. It’s for the same reason that Air Force pilots train in simulators before ever stepping food and a fighter jet.