Paper Trading Options: a risk free way of trading stock options.
Paper trading options is a risk free way to hone your skills as an options trader. Learning how to profit on paper will increase your chances of profiting with real money.
This course is designed for beginner traders. Paper trading is the only form of trading I recommend for beginners. Buying stock options can be risky so you should crawl before you walk.
Paper trading options is a bit like playing monopoly. You're trading with fake money. I recommend all beginner option traders to paper trade in order to.
hone their skills as an options trader build up confidence in their ability to trade and to make the normal beginner mistakes without losing real money.
A lot of people discount the practice of paper trading options and some of these same people are the ones I see grumbling because they are losing their hard earned money.
The way paper trading works is that you go through the motions of making a trade without committing any real money to the trade.
This can be done through a brokerage account that offers a paper trading simulator or it can be done with pen and paper.
I started out by just writing my buy and sell orders down on paper and tracking how well I did as if it was a real trade. Then I moved onto using my broker's paper trading software to learn how to work their order screen.
It only makes sense to practice before committing real money. Athletes practice, doctors practice, and so should you. One thing you need to be mindful of is that paper trading options does not reflect reality as far as your emotions go.
There will be a slight emotional detachment to the trade when it's only on paper. Once you start buying stock options with real money, you will notice two emotions drastically increase in their intensity:
Just be mindful of this because it WILL be something you have to manage if you want to be a successful trader.
Buying Stock Options.
Note: I am primarily a stock option buyer. Therefore, this course will only teach you how to buy stock options for profit. I will not focus on selling stock options for income .
So let's walk through an example trade.
By now you should have a good grasp on the first 4 steps, so now we will briefly continue step 4 and then outline step 5: Follow Through.
We will be reviewing a trade I made on the stock symbol "INFY."
The stock pulled back in price and I received a trading signal to indicate that a possible trade was on the horizon. The stock did in fact rise higher. The next day, after I received confirmation, I looked for follow through. My follow through criteria was that both the stock and the NASDAQ had to be rising higher.
If I were paper trading options, this how my trade entry would look in my trade journal:
INFY $43.08 (closing price) Paper Trade 8/25/09.
Jan 45 Call option.
Bid: 3.20 Ask: 3.40.
Bought 2 contracts: $680 ($340 * 2)
Trading Template: Stochastics and MACD.
When you exit the trade you then place the exit price and a few details as to why you exited the trade.
Each trader has their own routine and ritual once they are in a trade. Some watch the stock daily, some hourly, and others weekly; it's entirely up to you.
Prior to using Marketclub, I would review my trades at the end of each day to ensure the stock was still behaving the way I wanted it to. Now I just set up trade alerts through Marketclub.
Later in the course we will focus on exit strategies and review the results of this trade.
Message from Trader Travis: I don't know what has brought you to my page. Maybe you are interested in options to help you reduce the risk of your other stock market holdings.
Maybe you are looking for a way to generate a little additional income for retirement. Or maybe you've just heard about options, you're not sure what they are, and you want a simple step-by-step guide to understanding them and getting started with them.
I have no idea if options are even right for you, but I do promise to show you what has worked for me and the exact steps I've taken to use them to earn additional income, protect my investments, and to experience freedom in my life.
Just enter your best below to claim my  FREE  report:  Five Option Trading Strategies I've Used to Profit In Up, Down, and Sideways Markets.
Along with your  FREE  report, you'll also get my daily s where I share my favorite option trading strategies, examples of the trades I'm currently in, and ways to protect your investments in any market .
Products Created by Trader Travis.
Free Options Course Learning Modules.
Module 1:  Option Basics.
Module 3:  Basic Strategies.
Module 6:  The 7-step process I use to trade stock options.
Copyright В© 2009 - Present. The Options Trading Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
DISCLAIMER: All stock options trading and technical analysis information on this website is for educational purposes only. While it is believed to be accurate, it should not be considered solely reliable for use in making actual investment decisions. This is neither a solicitation nor an offer to Buy/Sell futures or options. Futures and options are not suitable for all investors as the special risks inherent to options trading may expose investors to potentially rapid and substantial losses. You must be aware of the risks and be willing to accept them in order to invest in the futures and options markets. Don't trade with money you can't afford to lose. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those discussed in this video or on this website. Please read "Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options" before investing in options. CFTC RULE 4.41 - HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR-OVERCOMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN.

TradeMonster's Free Paper Trading Account Review.
Please Note: TradeMonster is no longer available. The company merged with OptionsHouse in 2014.
This is my no fluff review of tradeMONSTER's free paper trading account.
This review does not reveal everything that the free paper trading account offers.
The review only outlines the major aspects that were of interest to me.
I highly recommend that you check them out for yourself. Unlike some of their competitors, they provide a convenient way for you to test out their trading platform.
I had been hearing about tradeMONSTER for some time, but since it's a fairly new broker I stayed clear of them until I could learn a bit more about them.
I finally found the time to open up a free paper trading account and tested out their trading platform. I've been reviewing their service for the last few weeks and I thought I'd give you a review of my experience.
Opening a Free Paper Trading Account at tradeMONSTER.
The first benefit that I noticed is that unlike my other two brokerage accounts, (thinkorswim and optionsXpress) I did not have to open up a regular brokerage account to access the paper trading account.
It's been awhile since I opened up my thinkorswim and optionsXpress accounts, but with both accounts I had to go through the lengthy application process and fund the account in order to gain access to their free paper trading account.
Opening up a free paper trading account at tradeMONSTER was much easier!
All I had to do was fill out a short form that took less than a minute and hit submit. It took me straight to the trading platform. Short and sweet, just the way I like it.
Signing up for tradeMONSTER's free paper trading account is ideal for.
Time conscious traders such as myself New traders who are often intimidated by the long application process of a regular brokerage account And people who want to get a free sneak peak before they commit to opening up a regular brokerage account.
Through tradeMONSTER's free paper trading account, you can experience all the features of a regular account without using your own money.
It's a zero-risk real world experience of trading.
So if you transition from a free paper trading account to a regular brokerage account or IRA, it should be a smooth transition as you will already be familiar with the trading platform.
They give you $50,000 to trade with and a $100,000 margin.
The Trading Platform.
When I initially opened my paper trading account, I did not have the chance to look around and figure out how things worked. I immediately logged out.
A few days later I found a trade I wanted to make so I figured this would be an ideal opportunity to test out tradeMONSTER's trading platform.
I went in blind. I didn't know how the trading platform worked, I didn't watch any video tutorials, or read any help instructions.
Can you guess what happened?
Within 5 minutes I had successfully executed two trades and had their orders filled. And for one of the trades, I even had to go back in and modify my bid price. I was able to do all of that without even knowing how tradeMONSTER's trading platform worked.
Now what I did was risky, but hey… it's a free paper trading account so I had nothing to lose. Buying and selling was pretty easy. You click on the stock option you want to buy and there's a green button that says "BUY" and a red button that says "SELL."
Now granted I've been trading for many years, so over time I began to get a feel for how to place orders. The companies may change and their order screens are all completely different, but the basics stay the same.
However, I admit if tradeMONSTER's trading platform wasn't so easy to use, I would have had to fumble around awhile like I did with my first thinkorswim trade.
TradeMonster's trading platform is web-based so there is no software to download on your computer. You can trade from anywhere you like.
No need to drag your laptop on vacation with you (yes I'm guilty of doing that).
I like it because my thinkorswim software I downloaded on my computer works fine until my virus scan comes on, then my computer locks up.
I can't tell you how many times I was in the middle of a trade when my computer locked up. Thinkorswim does have the capability to trade through a browser-based platform like tradeMONSTER, but I'm not too crazy about it.
TradeMonster also has a "drag and drop" feature that is pretty unique for a trading platform. You can customize your trading screen by using the "drag and drop" function to move menus around.
They also have a mutual fund screener and a list of mutual funds that they offer. This is important as you should not have all of your available trading capital tied up in stock options.
One interesting thing that happened while I was testing out the platform was that I placed an order to buy stock options after market hours (8:09 PM EST) to see what message I would get. I was rather surprised when it said my order was filled.
What the heck? That's not realistic and it could throw some new traders off.
You're generally suppose to get some kind of message that the markets are closed and your trade will be executed at the opening of the next trading day OR your order should just sit there as an open order until the next morning.
Managing Your Trades.
No more calculating your stop losses by hand or through an excel spreadsheet. They have this really cool stop loss calculator and exit plan function. Discovering this alone was worth the time it took to test out the trading platform.
When you place any trade, you have the option to enter in your exit strategy and any alerts will be sent via or as a pop-up on the site. You can set your exit plan by Price, Price Change, or Price % Change.
The mere fact that tradeMONSTER even has an "exit plan" function means they are serious about helping you become a successful trader because EVERY, and I mean EVERY trader should have an exit plan for EVERY trade. I think you get the point.
Charting Software.
They don't have quite as many studies (technical indicators) to apply, but they have the most important ones that I use.
Also, once I applied the indicators to the chart I had to scroll down to see them. This was a minor annoyance.
Commissions.
They have lower options trading commissions than their competitors, .50 per contract with a $12.50 minimum per order. You can take a look at tradeMONSTER's pricing here.
Customer Service.
Yes, I even tested out their customer service.
I tried their live help feature and the experience was good. I didn't have to wait long for an operator to respond and he answered my questions to my satisfaction.
There was one question he could not answer so he directed me to their contact form on the website.
When you submit an e-mail to support this is the e-mail you will receive:
"Thank you for contacting us! We have received your inquiry and are assigning it to a representative. You can expect to receive a response from us within one business day."
One business day great! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 DAYS LATER I FINALLY GOT A RESPONSE!
And then to top it off my issue was still not resolved. All the person did was ask more questions. The annoying part was that the answers to those questions were in my first e-mail.
I politely explained that I was annoyed and copied my original e-mail within the body and highlighted the information he was looking for.
Roughly 12 hours later, my issue was resolved. Now that was a better response time! So they were 1 for 1 with regards to their response time.
I assume they took so long to respond the first time because they are being bombarded with so many new members signing up. You know how it is. A new company grows so fast that sometimes the staff has a hard time keeping pace with the growth.
Besides, it's not like I haven't had a bad customer service experience with my other brokers.
Final Thoughts.
My other two brokers, optionsXpress and thinkorswim, have a huge head start on tradeMONSTER so I can't expect them to have all the nifty resources and reading material as everyone else.
For those who may consider opening up an account at tradeMONSTER…
If you become frustrated because they don't have all the bells and whistles as other brokerage accounts, I'd say be patient.
I believe great things are going to come from tradeMONSTER.
After all, it was started by 3 trading veterans and respected investment industry experts - Jon Najarian, Pete Najarian, and Dirk Mueller - which all have more than 20 years of experience cultivating financial and technology-driven businesses.
Here are some of the additional benefits of opening an account with tradeMONSTER:
Account Transfers - they will reimburse your ACAT fees up to $250 Truly streaming data - through real accounts and also when you open a free paper trading account Single-screen trading platform, so you're always near the next trade.
Ultimately, free is still free no matter how many ways you look at it. And the great thing about tradeMONSTER'S free paper trading account is that it takes less than a minute to open.
Don’t just take my word for it though. You won't ever know what they have to offer until you check them out for yourself…don't miss out on the next big thing.
Regards, Trader Travis.
P. S.  And for all you Twitter fans who don't like to be confined to your brokerages forum tradeMONSTER has integrated their trading platform with Twitter.
Does your broker offer that service?
Check it out the FREE paper trading account at tradeMONSTER's for yourself. Visit trademonster.
Products Created by Trader Travis.
Options Trading Made Simple Course.
Trader Travis Rants.
Programs Trader Travis Reviewed.
Copyright В© 2009 - Present. The Options Trading Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
DISCLAIMER: All stock options trading and technical analysis information on this website is for educational purposes only. While it is believed to be accurate, it should not be considered solely reliable for use in making actual investment decisions. This is neither a solicitation nor an offer to Buy/Sell futures or options. Futures and options are not suitable for all investors as the special risks inherent to options trading may expose investors to potentially rapid and substantial losses. You must be aware of the risks and be willing to accept them in order to invest in the futures and options markets. Don't trade with money you can't afford to lose. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those discussed in this video or on this website. Please read "Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options" before investing in options. CFTC RULE 4.41 - HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR-OVERCOMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN.

Free paper trading account options

EZQuote allows you to retrieve recent and historical end-of-day quotes for virtually any stock, index, mutual fund or ETF publicly traded in the USA or other world markets. The data can be stored in MetaStock or ASCII format and can be easily analyzed using any charting software package.
It has been said that the market is a zero sum game. It is not exactly so if you take into account your transaction fees, the cost of market data, the cost of the charting software you are using, the cost of advice services or newsletter subscriptions you maybe buying, etc.
We offer paper trading services at absolutely no charge and with no commitment. Most of the brokerage houses will require you to open an actual account before letting you paper trade. On other paper trading sites you might find that you are limited only to long positions because they do not allow you to sell short. We have no such limitations, and once again, it is absolutely free.
"This is the only free paper trading site I have found on the internet. There are many sites available out there but you have to open a trading account first. That is ridiculous. I just want to try my trading strategy in the real market." - E. Madden, NY.
Forex: "Elliott wave analysis helps me cut to the chase."
Jim Martens is one of the few forex Elliott wave instructors in the world and a long-time editor of Elliott Wave International's forex-focused Currency Pro Service . A sought-after speaker, Jim has been applying Elliott waves since the mid-1980s, including two years at the George Soros-affiliated hedge fund, Nexus Capital, Ltd.

Little Known Ways To Successfully Paper Trade Options.
Let’s face it, paper trading is a necessity for any options trader these days to be successful.
The term Paper Trading simply means that you are pretending to trade financial instruments such as stocks, options, and futures using their current prices as would-be buy and sell prices.
No real money is put at risk, instead “Monopoly Money” or “Paper Money” is used, hence the name.
Clearly, I believe that paper trading is not only beneficial, but is an absolute requirement of successful trading.
This is where most traders start their trading career anyways. It allows you to make trading decisions on paper only, so you can explore and try out different options strategies and technical indicators.
Why Do I Need To Paper Trade?
Everyone can read about trading or take a course of trading but until you actual open up a paper trading account with a broker and start placing orders; you will never learn exactly how it works.
As the old saying goes, “There is no substitute for seat time.” The more experience and education you have the more profitable you will be as a trader.
Fortunately enough for you, these days paper trading or virtual trading can offer the “seat time” you need without risking capital right away.
If used correctly, this could be just the ticket you need to get yourself up to speed.
My 2 Problems With Paper Trading.
I have two really big problems with paper trading in general.
First, it teaches you (through no fault of your own though) ‘things’ that you would not necessarily do had you been trading real hard money. Subconsciously you see it as a game instead of a learning tool.
I have seen too many students when coaching knowingly over allocate and place trades that are far greater than what they could afford with real money.
What’s the point I then! Sure we can all make $10,000 a week trading $3 Million but is that a reality? No way. Therefore, it is critical that you paper trader only trades you would and could trade with real money.
Here's a podcast we did a while back actually showing you why trading with less money is more profitable. This will blow your mind.
Second, paper traders always seem to focus more on trading profitability, instead of being consistency as the guideline of whether they are ready to begin trading real money.
Use the different broker platforms to test basic trading setups, make necessary adjustments sample trades and master entry-exit points.
Once you start making consistent gains with a proven trading plan, then you can venture off into the real market.
Start The FREE Course on “Portfolio Management” Today: When I say "portfolio risk management" some people automatically assume you need a Masters from MIT to understand the concept and strategies - that is NOT the case. But you do need to use simple checks and balances. Click here to view all 16 lessons ?
You Have To Put "Skin In The Game" Eventually.
No matter how many trades you do on paper, the harsh reality is that it will often give slightly false and misleading results.
This is because nothing comes close to real-life trading with real money (i. e. skin in the game).
The emotions and mindset are completely different when real money is being staked, which is why overall I think paper trading is only worthwhile up to a certain point.
For one thing, you tend to make more aggressive moves when no real money is at stake right? I mean you have nothing to lose so why not. But again you try your best to treat paper trading as if real money were at stake.
I know this is hard to do, but the more closely you relate your paper trading strategies to the real world, the more profitable you will be in the long run.
It’s just a verifiable fact that human beings learn best from suffering the consequences of their mistakes. Yet with no real money lost when paper trading, the lessons you should be learning aren’t fully burned into your mind the way a real loss would be.
Who Do You Think Has The Best Paper Trading Platform?
From thinkorswim, TradeKing and TradeMonster to everything in between; which broker has the best paper trading platform and why? Focus on the education, you gain when adding your insightful comment below!
About The Author.
Kirk Du Plessis.
Kirk founded Option Alpha in early 2007 and currently serves as the Head Trader. Formerly an Investment Banker in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group for Deutsche Bank in New York and REIT Analyst for BB&T Capital Markets in Washington D. C., he’s a Full-time Options Trader and Real Estate Investor.
He’s been interviewed on dozens of investing websites/podcasts and he’s been seen in Barron’s Magazine, SmartMoney, and various other financial publications. Kirk currently lives in Pennsylvania (USA) with his beautiful wife and two daughters.
First off I want to say thanks for following me on twitter.
I couldn’t agree more about how crucial paper trading is. My personal money may be locked up in fairly safe value plays - but for learning how to do more volatile things I don’t think it would be a good decision to go out and risk my own money just yet.
To anyone who has almost no investing experience I’d strongly reccomend putting your money in index funds and paper trading for a year+. Then I’d strongly suggest slowly transitioning your funds from the index fund to your trading account.
I would not use any “platform” other than a paper tablet. You write the date, the trade, the fees, and your rationale. This serves as your journal and when the trade performs as thought or goes bad then you have a hard copy and notes. Any free charting service can become a platform. Of course, day trading would be had to do with this format.
Wow — AAPL earnings blew out estimates..the company basically doubled in size in 1 year.
Thinkorswim is a great paper trading platform.
The analyze tab which allows you to try out scenarios on the profit/loss graph are invaluable. This isn’t unique but the feature of being able to follow the progress of your trade on the P/L graph is the real winner. I can’t believe Optionsxpress with all their innovations hasn’t put this feature in. They only allow you to preview the trade before you make it, as far as I know.
I agree Paul. The ability to analyze possible adjustments and then stress test them with volatility changes is truly invaluable for me. I use that tab religiously.
Sure you can test out different trading platforms – that’s not what most people do when they start paper trading though Brian.