3 Best Sites to Learn Virtual Stock Trading in India (Without Risking Your Money)
Entering the Indian stock market can be a tedious job for beginners. First, you need to open your brokerage account (Demat and trading account). This means that you have to pay the account opening charges and go through the complex documentation process. Further, as stock market trading involves market risk, you can always lose some money — especially, you are a beginner.
So, how to solve this problem? How to Learn stock trading in India without actually risking any money. The answer is by using virtual stock trading platforms.
1. What is Virtual Stock Trading?
Virtual stock trading (also known as paper trading) is similar to actual trading where you can buy and sell stocks. However, here no real money is involved. You invest only in virtual money. Such platforms that provide virtual trading facilities are called stock simulators.
When you register in these stock simulators, you will get virtual money (Say Rs 10 lakhs or 1 Crore) in your account. You can use this money to practice trading.
Stock simulators provide real-time stock data, which means that you can try out different strategies of trading in stocks just like the real world stock market, but risk-free.
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2. How do virtual stock trading platforms work?
It’s a really straightforward process to use a stock simulator to do the virtual stock trading. Here are the steps required to start virtual stock trading in India-
- Open a free account (using your email-id) on a simulating platform (discussed below).
- Get instant virtual money in your account.
- Start buying/selling stocks like real trading scenarios.
- Monitor your portfolio and track profit/loss.
- Try different strategies and learn the trading basics.
- When you get enough confidence and experience- move to real trading.
3. What are the pros and cons of using the virtual trading platform?
Nothing is perfect in this world. Although there are many advantages of using virtual trading platforms (especially for beginners), however, there are also a few disadvantages. Let’s discuss them- one by one:
— Advantages of using Virtual stock trading platforms
- No need to open a Demat/trading account or go through any documentation process.
- No real money is required to start virtual trading.
- Real-time market scenarios to try out different strategies and to learn the basics.
- Risk-free trading practice.
- Okay to make mistakes and take risks as there’s no real loss here.
— Disadvantages of using virtual stock trading platforms
- There’s no emotional attachment as real money is not involved.
- You can quickly get bored as winning/losing virtual money is not much exciting.
- The real market scenario might be a little different than the virtual trading environment. (In the virtual trading platforms, participants take extra risks and bets than they would actually take in a real scenario.)
3. Best sites to learn virtual stock trading in India.
1. Moneybhai
Website — https://moneybhai.moneycontrol.com/
Moneycontrol website offers Moneybhai. It is a free virtual trading platform where you’ll get Rs 1 crore virtual cash on registration which you can use to invest in shares, commodities, mutual funds, or fixed deposits on the platform.
At Moneybhai, you can also compete with fellow Indian traders by joining different leagues. There’s also a free forum on this website where you can ask your queries or participate in the ongoing discussion threads.
2. Trading View
Website: https://in.tradingview.com/
TradingView is another popular virtual stock trading website/app in India. It is one of the best paper trading websites in terms of the facilities it provides like charts, technical tools are more. Users can sign up for free and connect to Paper trading to start virtual trading.
For the budding traders, who want to practice live candlestick charts or technical indicators tools to make their trades, they should definitely try out Tradingview paper trading.
3. TrakInvest
Website — http://www.trakinvest.com/
TrakInvest is a global trading platform that helps you to learn, develop and improve your investing skills. Currently, it provides curated market data and news from 10 exchanges. It also offers beginners’ guides and videos, certification courses designed by industry experts, and simulations for competing for rewards.
At TrakInvest, you can also track other traders and dig deeper into their trading activity (portfolio) where you can replicate their trades using the ‘Copy Trade’ facility. Overall, TrakInvest provides a simple and friendly platform for ‘Social’ virtual trading for beginners.
Bonus: Other Popular Virtual Stock Trading Platforms
Bonus #1: Dalal Street
Website: https://www.dsij.in/Stock-Market-Challenge
Dalal Street Investment Journal (DSIJ) popular virtual stock trading platform in India which helps you to understand the different trading nuances and to test your investment strategies.
On registration, you’ll get virtual cash of Rs 1,000,0000 to create your portfolio. At DSIJ, you can also discuss strategies with like-minded participants in the discussion group.
Bonus #2: Investopedia stock simulator
Website: https://www.investopedia.com/simulator/
This is my favorite stock simulator.
Investopedia provides a FREE stock simulation platform where you can easily learn how to place trade orders (like market order, limit order, stop loss, etc), how to create a portfolio, how to create a watchlist, and more. On registration, you’ll get $100,000 as virtual cash which you can use to trade. You can also compete with thousands of Investopedia traders/players on the same platform.
The reason why I didn’t place this platform in the top 3 is that you cannot trade in Indian stocks on the Investopedia stock simulator. Therefore, if you’re looking to learn virtual stock trading in India, then it might not be a good option. However, if you are comfortable with trading in foreign stocks like Apple, Google, Amazon, etc, then feel free to check out this simulating platform.
Closing Thoughts on Virtual Trading
In this article, we discussed the best virtual stock trading websites in India, where you can evaluate your investing and trading skills for FREE without risking any money and with the least documentation required.
Virtual stock trading in India is an excellent way to learn the basics of trading in the stock market. Using these platforms, you can try different investment/trading strategies without any fear to lose your real money. It’s always advisable to try paper trading (virtual stock trading) for a few weeks before directly jumping into the market.