My apologies if this is the wrong forum. Is there a site where you can use a practice account to try out daytrading strategies? Preferrably something free, but if there's a small monthly fee I guess that's ok, too. Thanks. Oh, and would this be a good way to practice, or is it completely different from actually being in the market.
vse.marketwatch.com Marketwatch's Virtual Stock Exchange...lots of trading games and levels to play...
It can be a good way to practice, and I'd recommend you try it. However, be aware that it is TOTALLY different than trading. Just because you don't lose money in a sim, there's no guarantee at all that you can match that performance trading. The main problems with trading (at least for the at-home crowd) seem to be psychological and you cannot replicate those on a sim. I would pretty much say there's virtually no connection between sim and real money trading experience. My advice would be do a few weeks on a sim, then go to real money. i don't mean to be pessimistic, but I hope you have money to lose. Everyone who starts trading from home goes through a period of losing at some point, and 99.9999999% go through a losing period at the beginning. (If you don't, you're probably even more screwed in the long run but that's another subject.) You'll learn from losing so consider it tuition. Probably seems like contradictory advice, but it's the best I can do. Make sense?
Try the demo of Saxo Bank,this is live and you can do it for a month. they are not the very best of platforms but not bad for people who want to trade almost everything at relatively low rates www.saxobank.com
^ I'll look into that one. I set up a VSE "game" or whatever last night, and I'm "playing" it today, but the only thing I don't like is that your orders don't take effect for 20 minutes after you place them. So it appears that if you need to sell right away, you're kinda out of luck. Better than nothing, I guess.
Many brokers and banks offer demos but the good thing about Saxobank is the fact they have such a wide range of products. For the more pro trader Interactivebrokers.com is probably the best but their help is basically all electronic,whereas Saxobank have a human touch,good luck!
Ok seriously, in my VSE "game," I shorted AMR like an hour ago, and it would have been nice to cover 25 min later, but it's an hour later and my short order hasn't even shown up yet. I think I will look into other simulators.
Doesn't IB require you to have a fully funded account before you can use their "paper trading" account? I'd prefer to not have to put money into something as I already have an account with Scottrade that I use for swing/long term trading.
Ummmm.... Ok this is getting insane. Go to www.gndt.com E-mail support, ask them to set you up with a demo account to day-trade on laser. Ask for a month. Then ask them to do it again, and again, and and again. The guy I was talking to there was really nice and he had it set-up for me for about 3 months. I don't know if it costs them money to run demo accounts, but they are really nice about it. You can use laser and really day-trade. Because this thread is insane. You would not be day-trading with some web-text based client like I assume you are using right now. 20 minute delay is insane. Go to that website, get a demo and day-trade using live data. Chicago Trading Services could set you up with a demo of Liquid, that is another option. You could easily practice day-trading for a month, and if it comes down to it, just make a new e-mail and ask over and over, whatever you got to do to learn, do it. EDIT: Also, you could ask a firm that has Sterling Trader Pro. I've had a demo for that for over a month now and it still works with live data. Another option, Benchmarq Trading and their Blackwood trading platform, it still works for me and I set up the demo quite awhile ago. Ask them to set you up a demo. ANOTHER option, is to go to assent, ask them to set you up with a demo of Anvil. C'mon people, actually make suggestions about day-trading platforms, not these kiddie websites that teach nothing about day-trading. Take my advice, and get yourself a real DAT platform and demo trade on that. Stop playing around with these "virtual stock exchanges" and crap. www.gndt.com *Ask for demo of laser* www.benchmarqtrading.com *ask for demo of blackwood* www.chicagotradingservices.com *Ask for demo of liquid* www.assent.com *ask for demo of Anvil* www.positradeinc.com *ask for demo of Sterling Trader Pro* www.thinkorswim.com *ask for demo of ToS software* I just found you 6 real-time data, direct access trading platforms that you can demo trade on in real-time. This problem is solved. No thanks required.