Your Own Free Dummy Stock & Crypto Trading Portfolios
Setting up a dummy trading portfolio (also called a mock or virtual portfolio) is one way aspiring teen investors can overcome the fear of taking that first step in investing. Using fake dollars and virtual stock market simulators that pull stock and crypto prices from the real market, young investors can get a taste of the ups and downs of the stock and crypto market.
We have 2 mock trading portals:
Along with setting up dummy stock portfolios, you may want to get knowledge about the stock and crypto markets. To learn about stocks, check out our course, TeenVestor Stock Certification Course by clicking the link on the course image. The course consists of text, video lessons, and quizzes to help you understand the stock market. To learn about cryptocurrency, see our articles, Crypto for Teenagers and Crypto Custodial Accounts for Teen Investors.
Dummy Stock Portfolios: MockPortfolios.com
There are a few free sites that allow you to set up stock market games in which you can compete with your friends to see who has the highest profits in mock portfolios you create with fake dollars. If you just want to set up your own mock trading portfolio, without the competition element, you can do that too.
We can recommend our free mock trading portfolio portal that we set up just for teens:
Other mock portfolio portals include: MarketWatch Virtual Stock Exchange, Wall Street Survivor, and How the Market Works.
Before you can create your own dummy portfolio in MockPortfolios.com, you have to join one of the stock competitions we’ve created within the game’s platform. Each competition has its rules and regulations about what type of stocks you can buy, the amount of initial virtual cash you can play with, etc.
Each competition has a different purpose in terms of helping you in your investing journey. Currently, MockPortfolios.com has two competitions: “The Dow-Only Competition” and “The TeenVestor Index Competition”. You can join either one or both. Other people can join as well so there will be a rank for participants in each competition. Here the descriptions of the competition in the TeenVestor Mock Portfolios site:
The Dow-Only Competition (With a Prize to be Announce Later)
You can only invest in the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Start with $2,000 in virtual cash
Recommended for teen investors because the Dow Stocks are generally less risky and plenty of research material is available to help you understand the financials of these companies and what they do.
There is no short-selling allowed (i.e. selling stock you don’t own by borrowing money from an online broker).
We strongly discourage excessive trading in the competition.
TeenVestor Index Portfolio
You can invest in stocks that we have in our index which consists of 30 stocks, some of which are in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (See the complete list here).
Start with $10,000 in virtual cash
Ideal for investors who want to invest in a wider universe of stocks traded in the US stock market.
There is no short-selling allowed (i.e. selling stock you don’t own by borrowing money from an online broker)
Unrestricted Competition (Competition Currently Closed)
You can invest in stocks traded on the NYSE, AMEX, or NASDAQ
Start with $10,000 in virtual cash
Ideal for investors who want to invest in a wider universe of stocks traded in the US stock market.
There is no short-selling allowed (i.e. selling stock you don’t own by borrowing money from an online broker
Dummy Crypto Portfolios: MockCryptoGame.com
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies are all the rage these days, even though they can be risky investments. Teen investors are particularly interested in crypto because it is innovative and radically different from how their parents use and invest money. To understand cryptocurrencies, please visit our page, Cryptocurrency for Teenagers.
With MockCryptoGame.com, you can set up a crypto portfolio and invest in hundreds of cryptocurrencies. We recommend you do mock trading with the top 20 cryptocurrencies. You can find a list of all cryptocurrencies from CoinMarketCap.
There is only one cryptocurrency game/competition on MockCryptoGame.com:
TeenVestor Crypto Competiton
You can mock trade hundreds of cryptocurrencies but we recommend that you stick to the top 20 cryptos which include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, etc.
Start with $20,000 in virtual cash
You can buy fractions of a cryptocurrency. For example, bitcoin is currently trading around $20,000 right now but you can buy anywhere from %10 to 100% of a Bitcoin. If you bought 10% of a Bitcoin, you would be paying about $2,000.
You can “short” cryptocurrencies. Shorting is a way to bet on the market by selling an asset you don’t own yet if you believe the price of that asset is going to go down. For example, let’s assume that Bitcoin is trading at $20,000 today. If you shorted it today and the price goes to $19,000 tomorrow, you would gain $1,000 ($20,000 - $19,000). Shorting is basically a bet that price will decrease.