Where can I provide a good, customizable paper trading account service that is free? There are a few basic features I would like: -- The initial principal must be changeable to my input -- Commission rates must be changeable to my input -- Real-time rather than delayed if possible, although this really isn't that important I want to make my paper trading conditions as close to as they will be when I go live as possible. Thanks for your help!
try the TradeStation simulator which is available to all accounts. The simulator trades "live" during market hours and allows you to test your strategies and methods on all 4 instruments: equities/options/futures/forex. www.tradestation.com
TraderGreg, if you are looking to eventually have a live account, then just try out different platforms from the different brokers, because you will need to find out which one you like best. The few times I have looked at changing brokers I have always run their paper trade version first. They all start you out at standard commissions and 100K, but if you e-mail them, they can change it. If you just want a paper trade account and aren't looking for a broker at this time, sign up on Virtual Stock Exchange. There you can set up an individual portfolio and set your own parameters, commission, acc. value, interest rate etc. Hope this helps, traderTX
Thank you for your responses. I appreciate the suggestion for the Virtual Stock Exchange, but it does not offer options, which I will be trading exclusively. My brokerage will be TradeKing, which does not offer paper accounts or a trial run. Even so, my indicators, tools, charts, and programming/backtesting will all be done through NinjaTrader. To sum things up, I'm looking for a paper trading service that allows input commissions, input account balances, and options trading. Real-time orders are preferable, but not needed. Thanks for your help!