Practicing trading with a mock portfolio is one of the best ways to give you experience in investing money in the stock market, which can make you high returns on your investment quickly. Normally, learning how to day trade on the stock market can be costly for new investors, especially those who are unsure where to put their money.
Making a mock portfolio online is a safe way to learn about investing without actually putting real money at risk. Mock portfolios will track simulated investments through the real time fluctuations in the market, allowing potential investors to learn valuable stock market tips before they have to put their own money on the line.
There are many sites on the internet that potential investors may go on to practice creating an investment portfolio. Here are some of the most popular sites for making mock portfolios.
OptionsHouse
Optionshouse has probably one of the best free virtual stock market trading platforms available. It’s quite easy to use for the average person and allows you to trade in real-time using the same trading tools that the real traders have access to as well as several useful analysis tools such as streaming charts and volatility assessments. Once you sign up for a free account, you’ll start with $5k in virtual money which you can then try to turn it into hundreds of thousands. It’s a great way to test ideas and trading strategies without risking any of your money. Then when you’re ready to trade for real, you just use your live trading account with them.
StocksQuest.com
This site is also pretty good and is easy enough for a high school student to use, but also allows users to create a sophisticated portfolio if they want. Users can practice on both United States and international markets. Mock stock trading portfolios may be created using stocks from the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. This allows for users to find the company that is right for their investment strategy. StocksQuest.com walks users through step by step and explains differing aspects of each company and industry. Like Optionshouse it is designed to help potential investors learn as much as they can before actually investing real funds.
Google Finance
One of the biggest finance and stock related sites, Google Finance offers a mock portfolio area, this site is geared toward more experienced traders but it is still has many mock investment options to help first-time investors gain real-life experience. All the major exchanges are available for practice through a portfolio on the site. Like most Google applications, it can be easily accessed by going to the Google homepage and clicking the finance link at the top of the page. This is a reliable site that takes a little fiddling with to learn all the options available. This is useful for people who learn by doing instead of by being instructed, and since real money is not involved, there is no harm in learning through trial and error while practicing with an account.
Yahoo!Finance
This site also has a large, easy to use site to set up a mock investment portfolio. Yahoo!, like Google, is another large website conglomerate that has proven to be trustworthy by millions of users. This site is also allows for people to practice on a variety of exchanges, allowing for portfolio diversity. This website has many visual aids to help for different learning styles. It is moderately user friendly, being slightly more navigable than Google Finance, yet not as easy as OptionsHouse or StocksQuest. This website does not require outside instruction, just a little of practice to learn the ins and outs of this site.
Of the four aforementioned sites, OptionsHouse is probably the best overall platform offering excellent stock analysis tools for both novice and experienced investors. StocksQuest.com is also good as it has decent explanations of different terms and practices, geared for those who may not have a base knowledge of investing. Google Finance has a lot of great options but more geared towards the serious investor and Yahoo Finance is in the middle for people who may have some knowledge, but still need some guidance and want some help with intermediate-level stock trading tips.
Practicing investing with a mock stock portfolio is the best way to learn different markets without actually risking any real money. For those who are new to the investing world or for investors who have not played the market in a while, a mock portfolio is a way to make anyone a savvy investor.