Any Programs/Sites to Play with Stocks/Options?

[LamboKing]

I've been learning about stocks and options, and I'm ready to get my feet in the water, and see things first hand. That being said, before I just dump my money in a brokerage account, I wanted to know are there any games/software/programs/sites where I can invest with fake money, and learn?

I know thinkorswim has some kind of program. Was curious if there's any others?

Thanks in advance!

 

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[G-Man]

I've been learning about stocks and options, and I'm ready to get my feet in the water, and see things first hand. That being said, before I just dump my money in a brokerage account, I wanted to know are there any games/software/programs/sites where I can invest with fake money, and learn?

I know thinkorswim has some kind of program. Was curious if there's any others?

Thanks in advance!

Get an INSIDERS sub and follow MJ's options thread.

 

[LamboKing]

Yeah, I was part of the inside and read most of the thread. Learned a lot and took the dough course that was recommended.

 

[MidwestLandlord]

E*Trades' optionhouse brand has a paper trading account. Never used it though, because I didn't want to learn a platform for a company I knew I wouldn't use.

I used thinkorswim's paper account for 4 weeks, then dove into the real thing.

Paper trading and real trading might as well be from different planets. Totally different.

 

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[c_morris]

I used thinkorswim's paper account for 4 weeks, then dove into the real thing.

Paper trading and real trading might as well be from different planets. Totally different.

TOS has really good paper trading with a lot of functionality that lets you get familiar with the platform which can be a challenge in itself.

As @MidwestLandlord said, paper trading is a lot different than the real thing. Once real money is on the line, your emotions get tested and that's where most people fail.

 

[freedom2]

I would guess most brokers offer a demo or paper trading account. InteractiveBrokers is a decent choice and they offer paper trading as well.

For all demo accounts: the fills are not realistic (in both directions - sometimes you get a fill where you would not get a fill with real money and of course you are also getting worse fills).

 

[jesseissorude]

I've heard Optionhouse is good, but I would start with Kirk's free stuff at optionalpha.com. He has a BUNCH of free courses that tell you everything you need to get started. He also uses the Thinkorswim platform so you can see how he sets that up and you can do paper-trading from there.

Test a lot on paper. Once you decide to do it, it's going to take a lot of your time to learn on the front end before you get to the point where you can do it for an hour or less each morning and be doing it correctly. It will take a lot of study and hard work... but I personally think the math is fun, so it kept me motivated

And only worry about this stuff once your fastlane business is up and running and making you money. No distractions until that's in place!

 

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[LamboKing]

Thanks for the advice everyone will check these sites/platforms out.

I've heard Optionhouse is good, but I would start with Kirk's free stuff at optionalpha.com. He has a BUNCH of free courses that tell you everything you need to get started. He also uses the Thinkorswim platform so you can see how he sets that up and you can do paper-trading from there.

Test a lot on paper. Once you decide to do it, it's going to take a lot of your time to learn on the front end before you get to the point where you can do it for an hour or less each morning and be doing it correctly. It will take a lot of study and hard work... but I personally think the math is fun, so it kept me motivated

And only worry about this stuff once your fastlane business is up and running and making you money. No distractions until that's in place!

And I agree. My fastlane business is not up and running yet, so this will not be my main priority. Just wanted to take 30 mins a day to learn the concepts and structure so I won't be clueless when things fall into place.

 

[jesseissorude]

And I agree. My fastlane business is not up and running yet, so this will not be my main priority.

Cool, if that's the case then I'd just get a robo-investor like Wealthfront or Betterment (or even save everything in cash!). You can miss out on 12% returns for a year or two while you get your income up. Then when you can throw a shitload of money into your investments, you can have 80% be in a robo-investor collecting your 12%, and use 20% of the money to learn options before you use the bulk of your money.

First things first: get that income way up and don't worry about the other distractions.

 

[Ninjakid]

Investopedia has a really good one. Their site is also a good reference point for learning investing.

 

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