Stock market simulation: an online stock market simulation lets you use trading software to try your hand at the financial markets. Beginner traders can use demo accounts to get familiar with the world of trading. To avoid losing money, it is a good idea to spend time on stock market simulators to build your skills and develop profitable strategies.
How to Open an Online Trading Simulation Account
To open a trading account, you first need to sign up on a broker’s website. Stock market simulation accounts are not only for practice; they also let you test brokers. Account opening methods therefore differ from one broker to another. If you want to open a demo account, here are a few examples of the process with the best trading simulators.
On related topics, our articles “Best Technical Analysis & Stock Market Software”, “Free Trading” and “SMI (Swiss Market Index): The 20 Stocks in 2026” complement this guide well.
Opening a Vantage Demo Account
The Vantage simulator does not have its own trading platform. As a result, a Vantage stock market simulation account gives you access to the best platforms. First sign up on the broker’s website, then log in to one of its partner trading platforms, MT4 or MT5, to test the trading simulator.
- Go to Vantage and click “Demo Account ”
2. Fill in the Vantage registration form and click “Open a Demo Account”
3. Enter your personal details on Vantage and click “Next”
4. Set up your Vantage trading account (MT4 or MT5, account type – Standard STP to get the bonus, account base currency) and click “Next”
5. Confirm your identity and place of residence by uploading 2 supporting documents with Vantage and click “Next”
Opening an eToro Demo Account
To open a demo account, you simply go through the process of creating a standard account. Opening a stock market simulation account on eToro is very simple: you can access the demo account once you have registered on the platform.
1. Go to eToro and click “Join now ”
2. Fill in the short eToro form and click “Start trading”
3. To use your eToro account safely and access all its features, verify your account by clicking “Continue”
4. Read eToro’s terms and conditions and privacy policy before confirming your details
5. Complete the eToro questionnaire and verify your identity
6. Click the “Sign up” button
The Best Online Stock Market Simulators
To practise making money on a demo account, traders have several stock market simulation sites to choose from. You can also practise paper trading. However, some offer far more advantages and potential. They stand out for their maximum leverage, account duration and minimum deposit. The best on the market are Vantage and eToro.
Here is a table showing the maximum leverage, demo account duration and live account minimum deposit offered by these platforms.
Broker | Maximum leverage | Demo account duration | Live account minimum deposit | |
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 | 1:30 | 30 days | $1,000 |
Trading Simulation by Market
For trading simulation, traders can choose between the forex market with currency pairs, stocks and stock indices. In each case, there is a benchmark broker that offers a better experience.
eToro for Stocks
Specialising in the stock market, eToro remains at the top of the list of recommended brokers. It owes its reputation to its commission-free share trading. By choosing the eToro platform, your buy and sell trades are no longer subject to commission charges. Unlike other sites, you will not have to pay ticket, management or mark-up fees.
Simple, smooth and accessible are the words that best describe the eToro platform. It was designed to be usable by beginners and professionals alike. Even though it is a stock market simulation, learning investors can practise with shares in today’s best-known listed companies. It lets you buy company shares outright as well as trade them as CFDs.
The benefits of the eToro stock market simulation go beyond these few points. Your simulation account gives you access to more than 2,000 stocks across different sectors all over the world. To better satisfy its users, the software covers all types of companies: multinationals, mid caps and small caps. In addition, investors can also trade shares of companies listed on the London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Paris exchanges, and many more.
If eToro is now a benchmark for share trading, it is because it contributes to its users’ success. It lets investors collect dividends while offering very low spreads so they do not overspend their capital. In addition, direct ownership of the underlying assets is purchased by the site on behalf of clients.
To ensure traders can seize market opportunities at the right time, the platform is designed to provide information in real time. Whatever your level as a trader, you will be able to trade the markets without any difficulty, thanks to technical analysis and trading tools that are easy to use and suitable for everyone.
Vantage for Forex
Forex is one of the most popular markets in the world for making money. Vantage‘s services and tools provide traders with complete solutions for successful forex investing.
Choosing to practise with Vantage gives you access to more than 40 forex currency pairs. The bonus is that these remain the most liquid currencies on the market. To give traders an unforgettable experience, the site draws on impressive liquidity pools for the major currency pairs. As a result, forex beginners can quickly become active, professional traders at international level.
You will also find this platform among the brokers offering the lowest spreads on the market. Like eToro, traders can invest in most currencies without paying commission; only spreads apply to all trades. Vantage’s spreads are set with the aim of helping users improve their results and profitability.
One of Vantage’s distinctive features is 24/7 access. Traders can carry out trades or analysis without limits, at any time, so you do not miss any of the opportunities the market can offer. To increase your chances of making gains, you need to take full advantage of market volatility. That is what Vantage offers: trading from anywhere, whenever you want.
To help beginners master the basics of the markets, Vantage provides traders with comprehensive forex training. A dedicated section helps platform users acquire the knowledge they need to succeed as traders. Forex offers huge profit potential, but to benefit from it you need to master the analysis of forex financial products. This training will help you discover tips for profiting from your various investments.
Many people also like Vantage for its leverage. As this tool lets you multiply your gains, it is essential to take it into account. With the same capital, you can make ten times more or ten times less by using leverage. To help its users make as much money as possible, Vantage offers maximum leverage of 500:1.
This means your profit and investment potential is multiplied by 500. Vantage is therefore the ideal simulator to boost your trading income. The bonus is that the demo account lets you test the full leverage to understand its benefits and risks, so you can use it wisely on your live account.
Best Simulators by Trading Style
Traders use many different approaches, the best known being manual trading and social trading. However, it is important to understand the different criteria to consider before choosing one or the other.
Stock market simulators are highly recommended for trading beginners, but each one favours a specific type of trading. For example, the eToro platform is famous for its social trading tools, while the Vantage platform suits manual trading.
Social Trading and Copy Trading
eToro is the best-known platform for social trading and copy trading. It has become the world leader because its founders succeeded in connecting the best traders on the planet. Clients and users can contact professional traders to follow their investments and make as much money as they do.
Traders can exchange ideas and share their views with other investors. The eToro trading community is open to everyone and is one of the largest in the world.
In addition, eToro offers its clients a copy trading service that lets any trader copy the positions taken by other traders of their choice. This service is a big advantage for beginners, who can now make their investments profitable without having to acquire all the knowledge themselves. They can reduce their losses and follow exceptional traders who are already profitable. Each trader is free to choose which investor to copy and can also set their own selection criteria.
eToro takes care to display the profiles of all professional traders on its platform when you choose who to copy. You can filter investor profiles by setting the level of gains, risk levels and even their country of origin.
In short, the eToro platform does everything it can to help its clients make more money with its copy trading and social trading services.
Manual Trading with Vantage
To have a chance of one day joining the exclusive circle of professional traders, beginners need to take time to practise manual trading. This approach requires the trader to carry out all trades themselves after methodical, in-depth analysis. When they fail or suffer losses, they can learn from their mistakes and keep improving.
Note that manual trading can also suit traders who are already professionals and could help them develop new trading strategies. Manual trading also helps you develop the right mindset to succeed in this field. You will also need to set up a trading plan and the discipline required to stick to your winning strategy.
The Vantage platform lets investors trade manually thanks to its partnership with the MT4 and MT5 trading platforms.
Traders who practise manual trading are able to better understand the stock markets. Through constant, regular practice, traders can spot recurring price movements and use them as trading signals. They are also able to assess the trading opportunities that arise as objectively as possible, without being affected by their emotions. In addition, the Vantage platform provides many real-time analysis tools to help clients better anticipate future price movements.
Simulation by Time Horizon
For stock market simulation, you have two trading options. First, long-term trading is much better suited to the stock and index markets. This option is available on the eToro platform, which offers the best service for shares. The second option is short-term trading, and Vantage is the broker that best meets traders’ needs for this type of investment. To understand the reason for this classification, let’s look at their respective strengths.
Long-Term Stock Trading with eToro
CopyPortfolio is the tool that makes eToro the benchmark for long-term share trading. This feature lets traders take positions while reducing risk, so beginners can trade without an advanced understanding of the stock market.
More specifically, CopyPortfolio lets investors copy the strategies and investments of professionals in long-term trading. Three main options are available. The Top Trader CopyPortfolio
covers the best traders who have proven themselves on the eToro platform through impressive results. This option lets traders base their own strategy on those of these professionals before taking long positions. To eliminate risk, some traders copy all the investments of these stock market experts. The stock market is very volatile compared with the forex market, so every position taken is a real risk. That is why the Top Trader CopyPortfolio was set up to help traders.
The classification is based on 4 different categories. Quarterly Gainers come first and include the 50 best stock traders; this list is renewed every three months for greater security. Active traders are second on the list; they are chosen because they have more than 50% of their capital invested in stocks. Next come the trending traders, the 10 traders with the most copiers on the platform. Finally, there is CopyPlus 84, a group of traders with the lowest risk who had the most copiers in the previous month.
Market CopyPortfolios
This section is not based on the performance of people but on that of financial assets. It consists of baskets of CFD stocks, ETFs and commodities preselected for traders. These financial products are chosen for their various strengths and high profit potential. By investing in these instruments, traders can make as much money as possible. There is a wide range of sectors, and traders are entirely free to make their choice. The available options generally include:
- US market ETFs
- Gaming companies
- Major banks,
- Stock indices such as the Dow Jones 30, S&P 500, China 50, Euro Stoxx 50, DAX30, AUS 200 and Nasdaq 100
- Large companies such as Apple, Facebook and eBay
- Etc.
With this offer, investors get exposure to the 800 most profitable stocks on the market, a real advantage for those who like to diversify their investments.
Diversifiez votre patrimoineInvestissez dans l’artDes tableaux originaux, pièces uniques signées par l’artiste. Un actif tangible, loin des écrans et des cotations.Voir les tableaux →Partner CopyPortfolios
This third investment solution draws on financial institutions and trading professionals from outside the platform. They are invited to share their stock trading expertise with eToro users. Beginners and experts alike can then use this information to define or test their strategies for entering the stock market. This feature is made possible by the copy trading option built into the eToro interface.
Vantage or Axi for Short-Term Trading
Short-term trading requires fast order execution, a quality found in both Vantage and Axi. These two brokers use the world’s most powerful trading platforms: MT4 and MT5. Taking short-term positions is very easy with these two interfaces thanks to the way they are designed.
Short-term trading is an investment method that lasts from a few seconds to a week at most. To adopt this trading style, you can use either the H1 or the M5 timeframe. H1 shows market movements and the opportunities that arise at any given moment; a position taken in this case can stay open for up to a week. With M5, on the other hand, you trade based on the product’s fluctuations every 5 minutes, and your position must be closed within 24 hours at most.
For short-term trading, investors have three possible options
Swing Trading
The longest of the three, it allows the trader to hold a position for one to two weeks if necessary. The advantage of this approach is its fairly attractive profit potential. To make big returns, you will need to carry out in-depth market analysis, which requires the powerful, high-quality trading tools offered by the MT4 and MT5 platforms. Although investors can swing trade almost any pair, it is important to follow the upward or downward trend of the financial product.
Day Trading
To make money with this trading style, you will need to sharpen your decision-making. The MT5 and MT4 simulators let you practise on a demo account to develop this skill. Opportunities arise regularly, so by seizing them at the right moment you can build up a significant sum of money. Unlike swing trading, positions here can be held for 24 hours at most.
Scalping
Trading happens down to the second and is very exciting. Gains are small, as positions are closed very quickly. However, a good scalper can make a considerable sum by accumulating profits.
Simulators by Device
With advances in technology, you can access your stock market simulation account from any mobile device. To keep up with technological change and users’ needs, mobile apps have been developed. They can be downloaded and used on Mac, tablet, iOS, Android, Windows and desktop computers.
Here is a summary table of the different simulators and the devices they support.
Broker | Supported Devices | |
 | iOS, Android phone, tablet Mac, Windows | |
 | iOS, Android phone, tablet Mac, Windows | |
 | iOS, Android phone, tablet Mac, Windows | |
 | iOS, Android phone, tablet Mac, Windows | |
| iOS, Android phone, tablet Mac, Windows |
Stock Market and Trading Simulation by Platform
Brokers use trading platforms to let beginners practise with stock market simulation. There is a wide variety of interfaces for demo trading. However, the ones brokers favour most are MT4, MT5, eToro, xStation and ProRealTime, because of the different features and advantages they offer traders.
MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5
Suitable for all types of trading, these platforms are considered the most powerful for trading the markets. They offer a range of very effective technical analysis tools for understanding and analysing the market. MetaTrader 5 and MetaTrader 4 increase your chances of spotting the best market opportunities and profiting from them.
The benefits of these two programs do not stop there. First, the MT4 and MT5 mobile apps are completely free to download. You can also log in to your account directly online without downloading anything. Whatever type of device you use, both interfaces can be installed and used.
Thanks to the brokers that offer them, such as Vantage, Axi and IC Markets, beginner traders can easily get to grips with trading using MetaTrader 5 and MetaTrader 4. The trading tools available are simple and practical to use; you do not need to be a programmer.
These platforms are also popular because they suit both forms of trading. Traders can add robots for automated trading, and manual trading is also possible for those who want to learn to trade based on their own analysis.
Although MetaTrader 5 and MetaTrader 4 both offer these advantages, they differ in their features. The table below shows their specific characteristics.
Platforms | Programming language | Pending order types | Execution types | Ease of use and navigation | Analysis tools | Number of indicators | |
 | MQL 4 | 4 | 3 | Very easy | 33 | 30 | |
 | MQL 5 | 6 | 4 | A little difficult | 68 | 38 |
Based on the table, MT5 clearly offers more options than MT4. However, it remains more complex for beginners to use.
xStation
The xStation trading platform gives access to all financial products on the market. It is also one of the best interfaces for stock market simulation, as it has high-performance analysis tools. xStation remains the benchmark software for in-depth analysis of market fluctuations.
xStation gives its users the opportunity to compare their trades with those of other traders. You can access information on the positions taken by other traders to optimise your trading strategy. By choosing this platform, investors can use an economic calendar to keep up with the news. To make things easier for you, xStation has a built-in calculator for your various calculations.
The 10 technical indicators installed on the software make it easier to identify market opportunities. To help its users make the most profit, xStation provides real-time data on market movements.
The xStation interface is available on various devices, so you can take positions using a Mac, PC, tablet, Android device or phone. With xStation, trading becomes not only easy but possible anytime, anywhere.
eToro
eToro is a trading platform suited to all types of traders. Beginners and professionals alike can use it thanks to the flexibility of its interface. With eToro, it is easy to build a successful trading career. In addition, the eToro simulation account is not only free but also unlimited.
The eToro demo account is designed to give traders the same trading experience as a live account. Investors are therefore subject to the various restrictions set by the regulators working with the platform. By getting used to the realities of trading, traders can develop the mental skills needed to succeed in this field. Online training is also available for beginners so they can learn more about trading.
To help investors make good investments, the eToro demo account limits capital use to 20%. Traders are also limited to analysing just 10 financial products. This way, they can adopt the good habits of professionals in the real world. The software also comes with some of the best technical analysis tools in trading, and its collection of indicators is a real asset for people who sign up to the eToro platform.
ProRealTime
ProRealTime is one of the best stock market simulators, with highly advanced market analysis programs. As well as providing real-time data, it offers a wide variety of easy-to-read charts. On top of these strengths come technical indicators, essential tools for identifying the right opportunities to take positions in the market.
ProRealTime is known for its performance in automated trading, a reputation it owes to the various modules built into the software to give traders a better automated trading experience.
- ProRealTrend: this module helps you draw trend lines automatically, giving your analysis greater accuracy. It also lets you draw horizontal lines on the chart to highlight support and resistance levels.
- ProBacktest: this helps you refine your trading strategies. Investors can test a wide range of techniques to find the best approach by evaluating how effective different strategies would have been on past market movements.
- ProOrder: this module speeds up order execution, which is a real advantage when testing the strategies set up in ProBacktest.
- ProScreener: this is only used on the stock and forex markets. It scans the different markets to collect all the essential information, and an assisted creation tool is built into the platform to make it easier to use.
Simulating Online, But With What Deposit?
To Learn to Trade
To learn to trade, traders use virtual funds. The amount of capital depends on the broker used when opening the account. Using virtual money limits losses while you learn. Traders can therefore identify the opportunities and risks of the stock market in order to make better investments without losing real money.
To Develop Strategies
To design a trading strategy, it is advisable to invest real money. This way, traders truly experience the market and feel every emotion. Each new loss or gain sharpens their instincts and helps them avoid certain pitfalls in the future. As a result, they develop strategies that will help them make gains more quickly. It is possible to design a trading strategy with a stock market simulation, but live trading offers more profit potential.
The potential gains a stock market simulator shows are very appealing. For example, a trader with capital of $200 and leverage of 1:50 can make a profit of $500 if the market rises by 5%.
However, in a stock market simulation, you cannot stake large sums. To increase your gains, it is therefore advisable to switch to a live account. Only live trading will allow traders to earn significant income.
Advantages
Stock market simulation offers many advantages for both retail and professional traders, including:
Practising trading: this is the main role of a stock market simulator. Traders can access the trading platform to get familiar with the movements of financial assets. Beginner traders can improve their understanding of charts and their ability to anticipate price movements over time.
Testing many trading strategies: traders who succeed in profiting from the stock market have a method that lets them find and exploit market opportunities. Anyone can work on designing a winning strategy before facing the market on a live account.
Understanding how analysis tools work: all simulators offer trading analysis tools. Traders can use them free of charge to understand their role, their uses and how to use them to make money.
Understanding the importance of leverage: many traders know what leverage does, but very few are aware of its impact. With a stock market simulator, traders can test different leverage levels and see the difference in gains and losses between them. Once on a live account, they will be able to make the right choice.
Trading without risk: on a stock market simulator, the money used is virtual, so you can trade without constraints. Traders take no financial risk when placing trades.
Disadvantages
Stock market simulators also have a number of drawbacks.
They neglect the emotional side: as the capital used for trading is virtual, traders are never confronted with their emotions. The psychological side of trading could affect them much more than expected when they start on a live account, and they will have to work on themselves again to stay in control.
No brokerage fees: during simulations, brokers charge no commission on trades so traders can get an idea of their performance. On a live account, however, many fees are added, such as deposit fees, brokerage fees and spreads, which tend to reduce traders’ performance.