5 Best Paper Trading Platforms of September 2024 (2024)

Company	Minimum Deposit	Stock Trades	Options (Per Contract)	Offers	Visit Site
	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00		Read Review

Webull’s downloadable desktop and browser-based trading platforms are attractive, clear, and a joy to use. You can have multiple charts on the screen at once and layer your workspace with tabs. None of the tools are overly complicated. Webull has a $2.99 monthly charge for real-time quotes (if you want them). You can turn on simulated trading using the mobile app’s “paperTrade” button in the Shortcuts section of the account homepage. Read review.

Webull mobile gallery

Webull web platform

Company	Minimum Deposit	Stock Trades	Options (Per Contract)	Offers	Visit Site
	$0.00	$0.00	$0.65		Read Review

Charles Schwab's feature-rich thinkorswim trading platform, which allows simulated stock trading, gives you streaming CNBC and its proprietary video content for free. Like E*TRADE (below), Charles Schwab has two mobile apps. The stellar thinkorswim mobile app is where you’ll find the “paperMoney.” Read review

Charles Schwab mobile app gallery

Charles Schwab thinkorswim desktop gallery

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Company	Minimum Deposit	Stock Trades	Options (Per Contract)	Offers	Visit Site
	$0.00	$0.00	$0.65

Interactive Brokers can trade everything under the sun and probably the sun itself, if you could figure out its ticker symbol. Sure, that’s an exaggeration, but IBKR is known for its broad investment selection and global reach. U.S. clients can invest in 33 countries. Experienced and professional investors rely on IBKR’s highly sophisticated Trader Workstation, but beginners may find it frustrating if they try to do too much at once. Luckily, paper trading is also available on the flagship mobile app, IBKR Mobile. Read review

IBKR Mobile app gallery

IBKR Trader Workstation (TWS) gallery

Company	Minimum Deposit	Stock Trades	Options (Per Contract)	Offers	Visit Site
	$0.00	$0.00	$0.65		Read Review

If you already know the difference between a put and a call option but want to continue developing your options chops, Power E*TRADE is a winner. Though it’s perfectly fine to trade virtual stocks, the options tools will make you feel like you have a stock analyst behind you (in a good way, not a creepy way). It’s neither overly complicated nor so basic that it’s useless to experienced investors. Bloomberg video is free on Power E*TRADE. Real-time quotes are free with a $1,000 balance.

E*TRADE offers mobile simulated trading on its Power E*TRADE mobile app, but not on its flagship mobile app, so make sure to download the correct app if you want to paper trade. Read review

Power E*TRADE Mobile app gallery

Power E*TRADE web trading platform gallery

Company	Minimum Deposit	Stock Trades	Options (Per Contract)	Offers	Visit Site
	$0.00	$0.00	$0.60		Read Review

TradeStation was an early disruptor in the online brokerage business by offering a suite of professional-quality tools to individual investors. Many serious traders use TradeStation because of its proprietary programming language, which allows automated trading. The complicated desktop platform is still TradeStation’s signature product, but its mobile app is much friendlier to newcomers. Read review

TradeStation mobile gallery

TradeStation trading platform

Company	Minimum Deposit	Stock Trades	Options (Per Contract)	Offers	Visit Site
	$100.00	$0.00	$0.00		Read Review

eToro offers almost the same ease of use as Robinhood (which doesn’t offer a stock market simulator) but goes a step further by combining brokerage with a Twitter-like news feed. Instead of relying on Dow Jones or the talking heads on CNBC or Bloomberg for ideas, you can read posts from fellow individual investors, many of whom are seeking to build their followings. Some of the user posts are thoughtful and well-researched but, as you should expect with any public platform, some aren’t. You can paper trade on eToro’s mobile app, too. Read review

eToro mobile gallery

eToro web platform

Paper trading is trading with a simulated portfolio instead of real money. It allows novices to become comfortable investing real money and helps experienced investors evaluate complex trading strategies before putting money at risk.

Yes. There are several names for practice investing. Whether it’s called virtual investing, a paper trading account, or a stock market simulator, they all refer to accounts allow users to invest fake money using real market data.

Yes, paper trading helps beginners become familiar with the mechanics of researching, buying and selling investments, and several brokers that offer simulated stock trading made our shortlist of best trading platforms for beginners. But investing fake money (and, especially, losing it) feels far different compared to investing your own money. You will learn more if you start off with paper trading, then invest small amounts of your own money by buying fractional shares.

Yes. Paper trading is often bundled with other services in broker accounts. Most U.S. brokers do not charge monthly account fees or require minimum deposits, making paper trading free. You will have to open a standard brokerage account, but you do not need to deposit anything into it. Some brokers may charge for real time data, but delayed data is fine for paper trading.

You may make paper profits, but you will not be able to exchange them for real money. You may, however, look for stock picking contests that offer cash prizes.

Brokers that allow options trading in live accounts and offer paper trading will likely allow you to trade options in the paper account for practice, a very good idea for new options traders.

At this time, Fidelity doesn’t offer paper trading, but beginners aren’t left in the cold. Fidelity offers fractional shares of stocks and ETFs, which still allows novices to get started without risking too much money.

At this time, Robinhood doesn’t offer paper trading. Beginners can get started by buying fractional shares.

Paper trading is a good introduction to investing, and it’s very helpful for learning how to use a broker’s specialized tools. But you will experience investing differently when you have real money at risk. A $10 loss of real money feels vastly different than a $100,000 loss of nonexistent money.

Track your trades: Read about the best trading journals on our sister site, investor.com.

Sam Levine, CFA, CMT, formerly a lead writer for StockBrokers.com, has over 30 years of investing experience and actively trades stocks, ETFs, options, futures, and options on futures. He's held roles as a portfolio manager, financial consultant, investment strategist and journalist. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designations and served on the board of directors of the CMT Association.

Blain Reinkensmeyer, head of research at StockBrokers.com, has been investing and trading for over 25 years. After having placed over 2,000 trades in his late teens and early 20s, he became one of the first in digital media to review online brokerages. Blain created the original scoring rubric for StockBrokers.com and oversees all testing and rating methodologies.

For this guide:

• Whenever possible, we used our own brokerage accounts for testing. For several brokers, we used a test account that was provided to us.
• Out of the tested brokers that offer paper trading, we evaluated the data, tools, education, and research.
• We used paper trading accounts to assess ease of enabling paper trading and overall ease of use.
• We considered the best use case for each broker.

Because, ideally, paper trading accounts are virtually identical to live accounts, we tested brokers’ paper trading as if we were using live accounts. Admittedly, we may have taken more stock risk in these accounts, as there’s nothing to lose.

StockBrokers.com uses a variety of computing devices to evaluate trading platforms. Our reviews were conducted using the following devices: iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, MacBook Pro M1 with 8 GB RAM running the current MacOS, and a Dell Vostro 5402 laptop i5 with 8 GB RAM running Windows 11 Pro. In testing platforms and apps, our reviewers place actual trades for a variety of instruments.

As part of our data check process, we sent a data profile link to each broker summarizing the data we had on file and the data they provided us last year, with a field for entering any data that had since changed. For the brokers that filled out these profiles, we audited the information for any discrepancies between our data and the broker’s data to ensure accuracy.

As part of our review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones in a live meeting that took place in the fall. Meetings with broker teams also took place throughout the year as new products rolled out. Insights gathered from these calls helped steer our testing efforts to ensure every feature and tool was assessed.

We tested 17 online trading platforms for this guide:

• Ally Invest review
• Charles Schwab review
• eToro review
• E*TRADE review
• Fidelity Investments review
• Firstrade review
• Interactive Brokers review
• J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing review
• Merrill Edge review
• Public.com review
• Robinhood review
• SoFi Invest review
• tastytrade review
• TradeStation review
• Tradier review
• Vanguard review
• Webull review