Recomendations Dummy Accounts for Buyign Shares

Rehnn83

The page on share dealing suggests a dummy portfolios if you want to experience share dealing without the risk.

Are there any good sites for dummy share dealing, so I can get a bit of experience without exposing myself to the risk?
Obviously Google brings up quite a lot of options - but I'm after recommendations for better/more realistic sites.

TCA

IG offer free demo accounts and not a bad platform to mess about on. You can also trade from your phone or tablet via their apps:

https://www.ig.com/uk/demo-account

Malthusian

Better advice would be don't do it. At best it's a waste of time you could have spent playing a far more entertaining game. (If you like spreadsheet simulators I much prefer Football Manager.) At worst, it may instill false confidence in your genius share-picking ability. Even committed day-traders and other gamblers will tell you that there's a world of difference between betting with pretend money and betting for real.

Imagine how you'd feel if you made a 50% gain with "pretend money", in delight you got out your bank card and turned it into a real portfolio, and the next week they plummeted 50%. The nature of stock markets is that this is a real possibility. Conversely you could open a dummy account just before a stockmarket crash, thank your stars that it wasn't real, and have your money stuffed under the mattress during the next bull market.

AnotherJoe

I think the other thing is, you dont get that "feeling" when your pretend portfolio dips 50% compared to when your real one does and so your behaviour will be quite different.

The simple fact you are looking for this says you are looking to day trade, or at least , very frequently.

What do you think gives you the edge to win at day trading?

Bazofts_Revenge

AnotherJoe wrote: »

The simple fact you are looking for this says you are looking to day trade, or at least , very frequently.

Whilst building up the foundations of my investment life in a Fund (£50 a month) I also ran a dummy account and still do. It was eye opening to someone who was a novice back then. I took a theoretical lumpsum of 50 or 60k and divided it up between 10 to 20 stocks and funds and saw mayhem in some (Marconi) and stellar performance elsewhere. Looking closer at these as my knowledge grew I could see where I had made big errors such as High yield but negligible cover. Dummy accounts can help someone starting out. They don't need to be day trading. Investing theoretical amounts once a month is a good lesson especially if you get to see the averaging effects of buying in the dips and a subsequent recovery.

Bravepants

I thought day trading went out with the 90s!

p00hsticks

I haven't used it in a while, but I used to use the Power Portfolio here to track potential buys

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-1585809/Power-Portfolio-track-real-virtual-investments-play-stock-market-free.html

elephantrosie

TradeHero app on android

Ifts

The Share Centre also offer a free practice account:

https://www.share.com/accounts/other-accounts/practice-account/account-overview/

Bravepants

I don't get it really. Even the best fund managers get it wrong, why on earth would people want to do this thinking they can do better!

The active trading market is made up entirely of investors competing against each other (the zero sum game - someone wins and someone loses), buying and selling, and in the 21st century a lot of the time these "traders" are computer algorithms making decisions and trades in microseconds (hence my reference to the late 90s above). I'm an engineer and have worked with companies selling Global Positioning System steered atomic grade clocks that provides timing to the 10ns of nano-seconds level specifically for professional trading systems at places like Wall Street.

The issue is that you will be a home amateur investor (gambler) going up against other professional traders in the industry, and by professional I mean robots! You will never be able to keep up with that level of competition, and your money will just fritter away.

Of course you might not be a "day trader" as such. You might buy 10 or 20 shares, but what is that compared to a whole market of tens of thousands of company shares in say a Global Index Tracker fund. How are you going to keep on top of even 20 shares? You will be tempted to buy and sell, racking up trading charges, and paying a subscription every month or year to your platform of choice, taking money from your "fund". Even if you don't intend to be a "day trader" from the start you will end up being one because you will end up obsessing over your portfolio. Best option is monthly investment into a Global Index Tracker and check on its progress no more than once a year. Think "get rich slowly" not "get rich quick", and then get on with your life, which can be much more entertaining if you know where to look.

AnotherJoe

Bazofts_Revenge wrote: »

Whilst building up the foundations of my investment life in a Fund (£50 a month) I also ran a dummy account and still do. It was eye opening to someone who was a novice back then. I took a theoretical lumpsum of 50 or 60k and divided it up between 10 to 20 stocks and funds and saw mayhem in some (Marconi) and stellar performance elsewhere. Looking closer at these as my knowledge grew I could see where I had made big errors such as High yield but negligible cover. Dummy accounts can help someone starting out. They don't need to be day trading. Investing theoretical amounts once a month is a good lesson especially if you get to see the averaging effects of buying in the dips and a subsequent recovery.

If all you are doing is investing £50 a month and not buying and selling into different funds or shares, then you should just start doing it for real rather than delay a year or two whilst you practice at doing something else (buying and selling £50ks worth of shares) that you won't be doing for real.

A dummy share trading account has no use for a scenario where you'll be buying £50 of VLS once a month. If you plan to buy and sell frequently enough you need to practice beforehand, then I'll ask again, what makes a person who needs such a facility lty, think they can beat the professionals ?