Free stock market simulator: what to look for
A stock market simulator lets you buy and sell with virtual money under market-like rules, so you can learn investing without financial risk. The most useful ones copy real rules (fees, taxes, margin, short selling, options), update prices live and rank players against each other.
What makes a simulator worth using
Realistic rules matter most. A simulator with no fees, taxes or margin teaches habits that cost money later. Live prices matter too: delayed quotes hide how fast markets move. Competition gives you a reason to take decisions seriously.
How Journey Shares works as a simulator
Journey Shares is a free stock market game where the listed "stocks" are public figures: streamers, commentators, politicians, athletes and creators. Each has 200,000 shares; half trade on a public pool priced by a bonding curve, so every buy raises the price and every sale lowers it.
It copies real brokerage rules: no commission, but the real SEC and FINRA fees on sales, $0.65 per option contract, Reg T margin, 150% collateral for short sales, US-style capital gains tax with a wash sale rule, and cash that loses value to real CPI inflation. There are ETFs, calls and puts priced with Black-Scholes, and a bank with Basel capital rules that can fail.
Every Monday a weekly season starts, ranking players by what they gained that week, and an all-time leaderboard tracks lifetime results.
Who it's for
Beginners who want to learn how markets work, students in economics or finance classes who want to see supply and demand, inflation and banking rules in action, and anyone who follows streamers or politics and has opinions on who's rising.
Common questions
Is Journey Shares a real stock market?
No. It's a free simulator that uses play money with no cash value. The "stocks" are shares in public figures, priced only by players' trading.
Is there a free stock simulator with real rules?
Journey Shares is free and applies real-world rules for fees, margin, short selling, options pricing and taxes, scaled to a weekly game.
Can teachers use it in class?
Yes. It's free, needs only a browser, and shows supply and demand, compounding, inflation, taxes and bank capital rules working live.
Key terms
- Stock market simulator
- : A stock market simulator is a game or tool that lets you buy and sell with virtual money under market-like rules, to learn investing without financial risk.
- Paper trading
- : Paper trading is practising trades with pretend money, so you can learn how markets work and test strategies without risking real savings.
- Bonding curve
- : A bonding curve is a formula that sets an asset's price from how many units are in circulation, so each purchase raises the price and each sale lowers it.
- Margin
- : Buying on margin means borrowing money from your broker to buy more stock than your cash alone allows, using your investments as collateral.
- Short selling
- : Short selling is borrowing shares, selling them, and buying them back later, to profit if the price falls.
- Call option
- : A call option is a contract that gives its buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy a stock at a set price (the strike) before or at a set date.
- ETF (exchange-traded fund)
- : An ETF is a fund that holds a basket of investments, such as all the stocks in an index, and trades on an exchange like a single stock.
- Capital gains tax
- : Capital gains tax is tax on the profit from selling an investment for more than you paid.
- Inflation
- : Inflation is the rate at which prices across the economy rise over time, so each dollar buys less.
See also
- Play free
- Browse everyone you can trade
- Game-wide stats
- How to learn to trade stocks without risking money
- Real-time trading explained
- Paper trading vs real trading
- Streamer stocks: trading Destiny, Hasan Piker and other commentators
- Economics glossary for college students
- How stock prices are set
- Teaching economics with a stock market game
Practise with $10,000 in play money
Free. No real money involved.
For learning only. This isn't financial advice.