It seems like virtual stock exchanges, where you can compete with friends using only fictitious trades are a dime a dozen. What I am looking for, however, is some type of a virtual trading platform that not only allows equity trades, but also allows futures, forwards, options, shorts, and margin. A couple of friends and I want to open a trading competition and I was wondering if anybody out there could recommend us a good website for this type of simulated trading with performance tracking.
Just open an account you wuss.
Without real assets on the line people will take ridiculous risks since there are no real consequences except losing the contest.
A mildly interesting rule of thumb that is completely unsupportable is that in a diverse portfolio of futures contracts not chosen to hedge each other, hedge fund margin requirements amount to about 6*daily 95% VaR. Hence, you can get a daily VaR of 100/6 = 17% daily VaR on a diverse portfolio. Obviously, on a single contract…
Optionsxpress has that capability, although I think you still have to formally open an account and be approved for options/future trading.