Hi, I am interested in trading options, but do not have experience. Therefore, I would like to do some simulations for a few months. I know there are some free sites for simulating trading stocks, but not options. Is there such a thing? Or maybe some free software where you can do it on your own PC. Something that would download information from the Internet. Thanks. Zeppelin
Simulation is useless. The problem is the execution. I could make more than 200 ticks a day trading ES using a simulator(it uses the data from the IB TWS). But in the real world, most of those trades won't be executed.
I would have to agree with 0008 in regards to simulation trading, it is never the real deal. However I have found that optionsxpress offers one of the closest things to the real deal for options and equity paper trading. They have a lower account requirement to open, and a straight forward user friendly platform with a multitude of tools for trading options and equities.
Why do you say simulation is useless? I do not have enough experience, so I don't want to open an account and start trading. I'd like to experiment first.
Zeppelin, Not sure if this is what your looking for but it helped me when I was getting familiar with options, it will help you simulate different positions and see what can happen when different greeks change etc... I don't know of any actual real time trade simulators http://www.cboe.com/LearnCenter/Software.asp Also lots of other good info on the site including options pricing etc... Hope this helps wdbaker
Thanks. That was very useful. However, what I was actually looking for was something that would allow me to do "fake trades" automatically, monitor my portfolio, etc.
Zepplin, have you tried doing a search on yahoo or google? There are a number of sites, you just need to be aware that some require opening an account. The reason I mentioned optionxpress earlier was because they have a low minimum to open an account, and there are no inactivity fees. Their paper trading system allows you to buy calls and puts as well spreads and straddles. It wouldbe worth your time to check it out. I trade options rather actively and I find their site extremely helpful.
I'll definitely have a look at optionexpress. I'm just not sure I want to open an acocunt. I did search on Google, but I could not find what I was looking for, i.e. a free site.
====================== Might help for swing /position trades/invest; however its a useless waste of time trying to daytrading options. Have traded /invested derivatives/stocks for years; much prefer pencil & paper trading to video game simulation. wallstreetcity.com has crude but free charts; Zeppelen, wish you well but simulations even papertrading for a ''few months ''is another useless waste of time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you have an account with Interactive Brokers you could record intraday options data from it with Autotrader ($60). Then you could playback the data to Sierrachart ($80/year) and practice trading. You might also be able to use Ensign Software to record intraday data but I'm not sure about that. It's a little tricky but I use a program called Macroexpress to start IB data and Autotrader each morning in order to record data.