Investopedia Stock Simulator Reviews: Is It Worth It?

Once you have an investment strategy in mind, you will want to know if it works in real market conditions.

One of the popular tools out there is Investopedia Stock Simulator and today we will conduct an in-depth review. 

A stock simulator is a way for you to practice that strategy without the actual risk of losing your capital.

You can use this to familiarize yourself with how the real-world markets behave.

We’ll take a look at whether this tool can be useful or not really worth your money.

Investopedia Stock Simulator Overview

Investopedia Stock Simulator is an easy-to-use program that imitates the real-life operations of the stock markets.

It uses real data from the markets and the trading happens in a form of a “game”.

You can either join an existing game or you can create a custom game that allows users to configure the rules.

This technology allows you to pick securities, make trades and track the results just by using your keyboard or smartphone.

One of the good things about it is that you can see how well you would rank among people with the same experience level as yours.

Investopedia Stock Simulator How To Guide?

Investopedia Stock Simulator offers features designed to help not just beginner investors.

Even expert investors can use this tool to enhance their deep market understanding and use the strategy to their advantage.

Below are some of the noteworthy features of Investopedia Stock Simulator.

How-To Guides

Investopedia Stock Simulator includes a series of educational materials or “How-To Guides” via their website for users to gain stock market knowledge.

It includes topics such as purchasing stocks, advanced trade types, and covering short positions.

There is even a “Financial Dictionary” for beginners to learn more about the technical terms commonly used in stock exchange.

If you go to the Education section, you will see an Investing/Trading option.

Information given in Investing/Trading will help you become aware of what is happening in the stock market and defines terms related to economy, corporate finance as well as personal finance.

Stock Research Module

If you want to conduct stock research before making any moves, Investopedia Stock Simulator also offers that feature. 

Stock research is a process of analysis that helps investors and traders in making buying and selling decisions and gain an edge in the markets.

They do it by studying both historical and current data.

Within the Investopedia Stock Simulator, you can see a very basic stock research chart that provides those information.

Below is a sample of what the Stock Research Module looks like:

Portfolio Analytics

Portfolio Analytics is basically the process of selecting and managing a group of investments.

These investments are expected to meet the long-term financial goals and risk tolerance of a client.

Managing your portfolio typically involves these components: investing time horizon, diversification of investments, and risk tolerance.

Investopedia Stock Simulator offers Portfolio Analytics where your trades get updated in real time.

It also shows the commission and the total transaction cost.

Portfolio Analytics even gives the data of the most popular buys and shorts. However, performance history will only begin updating once the market closes.

When using Portfolio Analytics for the first time, you may need to make use of the education materials provided to avoid being overwhelmed by the data.

Game Features

When you create an account in Investopedia Stock Simulator must be part of at least one game. 

Before you can start trading, you need to join an existing game or create your own. You can join as many games as you wan

You can customize games based on options, margin trading, adjustable commission rates and other choices.

The good thing about it is that you can tailor-fit the simulations based on your own experience level.

You can then navigate the menu to update your profiles, review holdings, check rankings, and research investments.

Here’s how it looks like to create your own game:

Leaderboard

Under Rankings, you will see the list of the leaders of your active game. However, there is no comparison of your performance with the top players

Below are the different leaderboards you can view:

What The Review Sites Are Saying

The reviews for Investopedia Stock Simulator are generally a mix of positive and negative feedback.

Below are some of the reviews after they’ve used the tool.

From tradingkart.com:

“The simulator has not undergone any major feature changes since years thereby making it an out-dated one.

On the other hand, it’s a strong base on the educational front making it the paradise of financial knowledge hunters.

If you’re seriously looking to learn the strategies and technicalities of stock trading, you can definitely give a try to some other simulators which are more focusing on this front.”

From betterfinancialinspiration.com:

“Overall, I really like this stock simulation platform and would suggest it to anyone looking to learn how to trade or looking to try out something new. 

Just know that, like anything else, there are some system setbacks. 

I think that you will overall find that it’s a great tool for learning and playing against peers if you’re competitive.“

From reviewstream.com:

“If you are looking for a good fantasy stock market game, I can think of few better than Investopedia’s Stock Simulator. 

It is a pretty simple simulator that allows you to actually feel like you are playing a part of the stock market.”

Is Investopedia Stock Simulator Free?

Investopedia Stock Simulator is a free tool offered via their website.

How Much Does Investopedia Stock Simulator Cost?

However, you can gain access to all their features with an upgraded plan.

All you need to do is to register for an account with them and start joining a game or creating your own.

You can register using your email or your Facebook account.

Investopedia Stock Simulator: Pros & Cons

Now here’s the most important part of today’s review: the pros and cons.

Each tool has its own useful and not-so-useful aspects.

So we did our own research and now we’re going to break them down for you so you don’t have to.

Pros

Cons

The Bottom Line: Is Investopedia Stock Simulator Good?

Tools such as Investopedia Stock Simulator offer a safe, systematic environment where both aspiring and veteran investors can improve their levels of expertise.

Once you’re confident enough to have a shot at the real thing, your transition to actual trading in a real brokerage account will now become more seamless. 

Of course, the consequences of mistakes in the virtual world is very different from the real world.

This particular tool, Investopedia Stock Simulator, is overall a good and helpful tool.

The biggest feature is that it helps users develop a strong understanding of the markets through its comprehensive knowledge base.

And even though there are technical flaws present, continuous simulated trading will no doubt help you improve with regular practice.

If you like the idea of using simulations to gain “experience” in trading without risk, then you can always search the market for better, more updated tools.

Check out our comparison review of two paid subscription services, Flowalgo and The Stock Whisperer app, both aiming to help traders keep tabs on live money flow in the market.

Thoughts? Leave your comment below!