Best Stock Market Simulators

“Practice makes perfect” rings true when you're trading, especially if you're looking for the best stock trading simulator. The best traders all practice with paper money before putting any real capital at risk using a platform like eToro, which offers the best stock market simulator we've tried. But if you're after something a little different, we've rounded up all of the best stock market simulators you can use today — and because there's no investment involved, you can sign up for more than one without risking any capital.

Quick Look at the Best Stock Market Simulators:

• Best for Demo Accounts: eToro
• Best for Active Traders: Moomoo
• Best for Futures Trading: TradeStation
• Best for Advanced Futures Trading: NinjaTrader
• Best for Thought Experiments: MarketWatch

Best Stock Market Simulators

We’ve ranked the best stock market simulators. All of them offer terrific platforms, but the top selections on this list will have all the features an advanced trader can ask for.

1. Best for Demo Accounts: eToro

eToro, renowned for its crypto offerings, also offers stocks, ETF trading and forex trading. In addition, you can mix your stocks and ETFs into an existing cryptocurrency portfolio. The stock offering allows you to:

• Invest in full stocks or fractional shares for as little as $10
• Engage with real, experienced investors regarding strategy
• View detailed prices charts and analysis
• Pay zero commissions on stocks

Why We Picked It: What makes eToro exceptional is its unique social trading aspect, which fosters a strong community of traders. You can engage in the eToro CopyTrader system, where you can automatically replicate the trades of successful investors, gaining insight into their strategies and decision-making processes. 

2. Best for Active Traders: Moomoo

Moomoo is an intuitive investment and trading platform with pro-grade, easy-to-use tools, data, and insights. Offering a pro-level trading experience for those of all levels of expertise.

When you sign up, user can enjoy these features :

• Real-time Level 2 stock and options market data for funded accounts
• Advanced technical indicators and charting tools
• Advanced order types for professional traders
• Full extended trading hours from 4 AM to 8 PM EST
• Multi-market quoting ability
• Low fees, including $0 commission on U.S. Stocks or ETFs and $0 equity options contract fees
• 4.6% APY in the Cash sweep program

You can reach out to the customer support team during the trading day via phone or email. For those who want the DIY approach, you can review the FAQs in the Help Center at any time.

There is also a large of educational tools, research options and a community with more than 20 million users across the globe.

Why We Picked It: moomoo is a top choice because of its advanced analytics and research tools. The platform provides various resources, such as advanced charting features, technical indicators and access to in-depth stock analysis.

3. Best for Futures Trading: TradeStation

TradeStation is one of the most trusted brokerages in the world and it offers advanced trading on a customizable desktop or mobile platform. TradeStation is geared toward active traders and charges a $99 monthly fee on accounts that don’t trade 5,000 shares or 50 options contracts each quarter. It’s an expensive platform, but you can test it out for free by signing up for a paper trading account.

TradeStation’s simulator is complete with research tools, stock chart indicators and access to the community forums, where you can exchange ideas with other traders. Brokerage account holders can jump back and forth between real and paper trading on both the desktop and mobile apps.

Why We Picked It: With TradeStation's powerful charting capabilities, you can visualize market trends and price movements effectively, giving you insights to formulate and test your trading strategies.

4. Best for Advanced Futures Trading: NinjaTrader

NinjaTrader is a cutting-edge trading platform launched in 2003 that’s already on its eighth software iteration. The real stock trading app is a fee-based system, but the paper trading platform is completely free to all users.

You just need to sign up for an account to begin trading. NinjaTrader is a big proponent of educating new investors before they dive into stock trading. Its simulated brokerage carries over all the features of the live trading platform. The research and stock charting tools available are highly interactive. You can pinpoint a location on a stock chart that you’d like to place a stop-loss or limit order and execute trades entirely from the same screen. The backtesting option allows you to roll back the clock and trade during different time periods, too.

Want to see how you’d do during the 2008 financial crisis? Simply change the time period and test your strategies (and don’t buy Lehman Brothers).

Why We Picked It: NinjaTrader’s flexibility and support for various asset classes, such as stocks, futures and forex, add to its appeal.

5. Best for Thought Experiments: MarketWatch

MarketWatch is a leader in the world of financial news and current events. Many people turn to this platform to get their news, and you might have heard their advertisements in radio spots across America.

When you visit this platform, yes, you can read news items. However, you also have the opportunity to review stock information, set up a watchlist and more. MarketWatch is a good place to go when you have a thought experiment that you would like to review. Plus, you can save information in the account you’ve created related to these experiments.

When you’re ready to test out these thought experiments, you can play the Virtual Stock Market game. While this game may seem like it’s designed for kids, it can help anyone (even adults) learn how their trading moves would impact their portfolio and function within the scope of the current stock market.

Why We Picked It:  MarketWatch provides an intuitive design that allows you to navigate easily through various tools and resources. 

Ever play Madden for Xbox or PlayStation? Pretty much every football fan has simulated the NFL experience on a video game console. While playing virtual games won’t make you a better football player, it might make you a better stock trader. Paper trading allows novice investors to simulate the stock market experience by buying stocks and assets with fake cash.

With $100,000 in pretend capital, you can build a portfolio and test strategies without taking on any real risk. Want to see how different strategies work together? You might not be willing to take the risk if your own money is a stake. If it’s Monopoly money, though, you’ll be more inclined to explore, take chances and learn from mistakes if your trades go wrong.

The goal of paper trading is to improve. You’ll learn to better identify chart patterns and trends and you might even feel a little pang of pain when one of your pretend trades blows up. Some paper trading platforms are connected to online brokerages, which means you need a real trading account to dabble in fake money. But most simulators can simply be downloaded and “funded” instantly and trading begins whenever the market opens.

Key Qualities of the Best Stock Market Simulators

The top stock market simulators chosen by Benzinga share a few common traits:

• They closely resemble the actual market. You want an authentic stock trading experience when paper trading, so simulators must feel like the real thing. Buying and selling stocks in real time is important, so it’s important to have access to more advanced securities and order types.
• Many securities are available. Buying and selling stocks is fun, but you might want to test some more conservative strategies such as buying and holding ETFs and mutual funds. A good stock market simulator will let you trade triple-leveraged ETNs and hold mutual funds for 40 years.
• Useful research tools and stock charts are included. What good is trading if you can’t do any research? Stock charting tools are a necessity for any (real or fake) trading platform, and it doesn’t hurt to have access to conference calls, news reports or economic data, either.

Stock Movers of the Day

Get the Best Stock Simulator

Paper trading is a great way to practice and test strategies, but even the most realistic stock market simulator isn’t a true substitute for the real thing. Successful paper trading does not guarantee successful trading with real money.

After all, it’s easy to take on risk when there’s no real money to lose. Stock market simulators are for investors to get their feet wet, but you won’t know who you really are as a trader until you “play” with the real thing.

Frequently Asked Questions