If you are raring to try your hand at trading but you do not understand how it all works, then your best bet is to begin learning with a free stock market game. These stock market games, or virtual stock exchanges, are web-based software or consumer applications that replicate some facets of trading in order to help you practice without the risk of losing your hard earned cash!
Let us first look at the stock market simulators which use real companies trading on the stock market and real, live stock prices. Most of these games are available to play online or as a software application. For the most part they all use play money.
Current active stock games, or simulators, use a delayed data feed to ensure the information cannot be used in real trading. You will find that most stock game websites run on this kind of system; with games run via a delay to ensure everything is above board and nobody is illegally profiting.
You may come across other virtual stock exchange software that is solely available to those in academia; be it students or lecturers, and are used solely for research and educational purposes. Often this software is used a training mechanism for those training to work in financial markets.
It is also worth noting that there are also games that are focussed on specific markets such as; London, New York or Australia.
There are also fantasy stock games these will commonly trade stock that would not be found on a real stock exchange. These fantasy games do not work with money but could help you understand trading. Many of these games use things from popular culture as stocks. Examples will be how well a film may do, or the success of bands.
Another interesting twist are the programs based around sports. Yes, I said sports. This sort of software does not utilise regular trading commodities. Rather, this software shows how the trading of stocks works. By using sports, these games enable people who normally would not have an interest in stocks to easily understand how they work.
All of the aforementioned types of software enable you to practice trading with play money whilst in a real world scenario. These tools can help you learn how trading stocks works. This can be useful particularly if you are planning to invest but also if you struggle to comprehend what your stock broker is talking about.
So hopefully now your able to understand how a stock market game is able to help you become a much better investor.
Posts By Peter 