Best simulator for a complete newb?

dest149:

Get 1,000 dollars start an e-trade account and you're off

lol and get killed on commissions

pariahdog:

I suggest going with a sim instead of a $1000. A $1000 limits your flexibility. You could end up waiting quite a while for the market to move..

Start a sim account, build an ego, and then jump into a real account? Booo.

If you have $1k and really want to know what it feels like to lose/make money, then open your own account.

tbh, for paper trading, its hard to beat the thinkorswim platform.

FXCM for a demo stockstandard currency "paper" trading platform, and IG markets is pretty good for currencies, indexes, commodities (although doesn't seem to have spreads), vol and stocks etc. tbh from australia so haven't used thinkorswim.

the problem w/ FXCM is that it only excels in one thing... while TOS does it all (from futures, FX, bonds, equities)

Do must shops use similar platforms or do they each offer a tailor made simulator?

Try SaxoBank. They have a demo account where you can trade anything you'd like from FX to cotton.

Any other ideas to take a look at - preferrably one that aren't constrained by a week long demo period, etc?

What desk will you be on (assuming you know)?

LYNX Capital Partners

I think he means which product.

What desk though? Your strategy will be specific to your market place, and thus there's no sense in simulating institutional equities if you are going to be doing proprietary commodities. I will say I have no idea what desk LYNX has...I'm assuming it's a prop shop though? Don't they sell soft ware?

Any who I'm guessing you're just gonna be trading equities if you're asking for good Lvl 2 quoting, in which case other than opening a pa I have no idea.....

try updown.com

updown.com is cool but try and enter a competition or create a game against your friends....otherwise it's like playing poker for fake money....pointless imo b/c your job is managing risk and it's hard to do that with nothing on the line and a million dollars of fake money with unrealistic fees. (Unrealistic in the sense that they are PA fees and not what institutional traders will charge you)

I still think if you have some money you should open a private account, and do that along side your updown account

its fake money. have fun.
read the news, find the trends.. what industries and specifically in each industry what is the trend. for instance if it is alternative energy > solar? battery? then find companies associated with it, look into them, see the prospects etc. I mean this is just a macro strategy. Just see how you do with intuition. Its hard at first since the only companies you probably know are GOOG, APPL, MST, CSCO, BAC, GS, MS, etc.

and u will get pieces of relatively "good" information on how to invest in stocks websites.

something you should learn is that when you do a stock simulator, you don't consider Tax or transaction costs.
those two are a huge influence on your trades.

You first need to decide how you wish to trade. Are you a long term buy/hold trader, or a day trader (swing, momentum, scalping)? Once you know which avenue you wish to go, you can direct your focus on your investment strategy.

In my opinion, buy/hold traders have a lot of fundamental work to do, which is very time consuming to get one payoff. It's good though because if you are correct in your investment thesis, you can sit through lows.

If you day trade, it takes many years of trading to gain "experience". It's also difficult because you can be right about your thesis, but on an intraday basis the stock can jump in the opposite direction you want and you may be forced to close out our position.

I suggest reading up on some books on the specific area that you want to do.

http://www.freetradingsystems.org/

The one thing you won't learn from paper trading is...emotional control. Nothing beats jumping in and getting wet. No matter how much you paper trade, your are going to experience at least 1 loss (probably quite a few). We've all been there. Read a few books on different strategies. Try out different strategies. This is a big game and there is not just one way to play in it. Good luck on your journey and remember to have fun! It's just a game. (Played with real money) ;)

Sec.gov has a glossary. Very useful.

Believe it or not, Jim cramers' Action Alert plus subscription can help yo learn the fundamentals to stock picking. I would suggest you write down all the data available on a stock he picks and once a month write down all the data again. Eventually you will see a pattern. Then go look in the market for stocks that fit that pattern. What you will find is many of the popular fundamental sites will be putting buy recommendations in their sites on those particular tickers. What you won't see is them picking them up at their lows. That is where having technical analysis training comes into play. Confidence in your own ability is the hard part of learning. Your trading friends are here to help you learn (sometimes hard lessons) they are also willing to take your money with bad advice cause YOU didn't do your homework and felt getting a free lunch from them was easier.

investopedia.com

thinkorswim paper trader is the best ive found and you can do equities/commods/options

Definitely Think or Swim and Oanda for forex

I tried to register but it's just too annoying + you have to provide documents and its even more annoying if you are not from the US. It looks like you are registering with the police.

http://vse.marketwatch.com/Game/Homepage.aspx

wall street survivor is a good one. There are also great prizes

wallstreetsurvivor.com

investopedia.com has a simple simulator. It also has a lot of informational articles and definition of trading terms.

Who posted that online market making simulator?

Definitely reiterate what ^^ said about think or swim... its hassle free. just delayed 15 mins thats all.

Thinkorswim, although there is quite a difference from trading a simulated account then working in a prop firm with real time market action. Not that I'm a trader, but I l know from a good source.

Try http://www.strategyard.com. You can trade in both domestic and intl market. Create your stock trading strategies and win cash prizes in the contest.

If you want to do backtests over 20+ years or data you can also do that using MetaTrader4. It isn't the same as live results but you'll be able to instantly get a large sample that shows how well your strategies would have done over the years.

Thinkorswim has a semi decent demo. The prices are 20 mins delayed but the graphs are not which is annoying and i think its done so that people can rack up profits on their demo acct.

http://www.fxcm.com/ - downloadable platform

http://www.oanda.com/ - online java platform

Both have live prices and technicals. There are plenty out there, usually offered by brokerages looking to net new customers.

what about stocks, not currency?

The only one I know is http://ww.bullbearings.co.uk but that's for UK stocks only (also has FX, CFDs and spread-betting).

Other than that I'm not sure. I'm sure if you search Google for online brokers, or find firms that let you trade stocks online, you'll find one that will let you open a practise account just like the FX links I gave above.

i use virtualstockexchange.com. its pretty good, trades usually take 5 minutes or so. pretty realisitic tho.