The explosion of discount brokerages and portfolio simulators in the last few years has made stock market trading accessible to the retail investor. In 2020, while the markets plunged into bear market territory within the space of five weeks, the leading DIY trading platform in the U.S.- Robinhood saw its user base increase by a huge margin. In fact, according to this report, Robinhood added three million users in 2020.
Equity markets remain one of the most popular asset classes for both short-term and long-term investors. While you can take advantage of near-term volatility, stocks are probably the best wealth-creating machines over the last several decades.
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However, it is not easy to trade or invest in stocks without having the required know-how. There are several retail traders who have lost a significant portion of their capital while trying to make a quick buck.
Here is where portfolio simulators can be helpful. You can test and simulate a trading strategy multiple times before you allocate your savings to buy or sell equities in real-time. Investing in the stock market is harder than it looks. If you buy individual stocks it’s advisable to take a long-term view which means you need to identify companies that will perform well across business cycles and grow revenue as well as earnings consistently to generate outsized returns.
The ideal stock market portfolio simulator should provide an easy-to-use platform for users who can try various investing and trading strategies. It should also offer opportunities to learn the intricacies of stock market trading by helping users analyze market fundamentals, different ratios as well as factors in trading and associated costs.
Further, it should provide access to individual stocks as well as ETFs and mutual funds to accommodate both aggressive and conservative investors.
Here, we take a look at the five best portfolio simulators that can be used for stock market trading.
Ziggma is among the most powerful portfolio simulators in the market
Ziggma is an investment management platform that has been designed to help investors manage their portfolios better. Its portfolio simulator provides the user with easy-to-use tools to evaluate the impact a transaction will have on the portfolio. Here, you can build your own portfolio and Ziggma’s intuitive platform will showcase several metrics such as your portfolio value, total returns, daily performance as well as average yield.
It will also provide you with information about sector exposure and many other diversification metrics. You can also look at risk indicators such as the Sharpe ratio and the beat risk factor.
Like all good stock market simulators, Ziggma has a ton of fundamental and technical indicators that you can leverage to make an investment decision.
You can either link your real investment portfolio or create a virtual one on Ziggma. For the more experienced investors, it provides a back-testing tool where you test multiple strategies and see how your portfolio will respond to the same. In case you are new to investing you can take a look at the portfolios managed by some of the world’s most famous investors such as Warren Buffett, Bill Ackman, and David Einhorn.
Ziggma provides users with professional-grade tools allowing them to find the best opportunities while keeping their risk exposure in mind.
Wall Street Survivor
One of the most popular portfolio simulators, Wall Street Survivor generates over 2 million page views each month. Here, the user will gain access to a wealth of information that includes educational courses as well as investing ideas. You can join a stock market game and join a league for cash prizes that will help you gain valuable insights and become a better investor in the process.
Basically, Wall Street Survivor equips users with extensive knowledge related to trading and investing. You can practice your investment strategies with a virtual portfolio worth $100,000. Here, the user can create their contests and invite friends and classmates to participate and put trading skills to the test.
WarriorTrading
This platform teaches students how to day trade. WarriorTrading provides extensive courses that are taught by traders who generate consistent profits. It’s Warrior Trading Paper Simulator allows students to practice trading using virtual currency. Here, you can trade equities and options that are part of the U.S. stock markets. Students gain trading exposure without having to worry about associated risks and can learn about minimizing losses.
MarketWatch Virtual Stock Exchange
One of the largest publications that track business and financial news, MarketWatch also offers a portfolio simulator service. Using the MarketWatch Virtual Stock Exchange platform, you can trade stocks in real-time using a virtual portfolio. You can also discuss trading strategies with peers in discussion groups. It allows users to create and customize private and public gaming groups.
Investopedia
The final platform on the list is Investopedia, a platform that has educated millions of readers on financial terminology. Investopedia allows users to start trading with $100,000 in virtual cash while competing with thousands of traders. It allows you to interact with other traders from various backgrounds and learn their methods to become better stock market traders.
The verdict
While there are multiple portfolio simulators available on the market today, Ziggma easily stands out due to the variety of options it offers. While providing a portfolio simulator platform, Ziggma also has a stock screener option where you can filter equities based on multiple metrics. Further, it also equips the user with the latest news that is driving equity markets and the proprietary stock scores dashboard employs algorithm-enabled stock analysis based on which it ranks companies.