Getting Started
If you are new to investing, there are a lot of new terms to learn. But do not worry, this guide will provide you all the information to get started. Below we outline how to navigate our dashboard, how to place a trade, and manage your holdings.
Create your account
Click “Register Now”.
The page confirming your date of birth will appear.
After completing this step and selecting the administration, you can choose from any of the available public challenges.
Changing Your Password Or Email Address
After registering, you may need to change your password or email address.
You can do this by going under “Dashboard” on the main menu and clicking “My Profile”.
Once on that page you can change you email, username and password.
Your Dashboard
Your Dashboard will appear when you first log in.
This page appears to contain a wealth of information that will be helpful for your portfolio. You can get back to this page at any time by clicking “Dashboard” on the main menu.
Parts of the page:
- Under the main menu, you will see a snapshot of your portfolio. It has your current portfolio value, percentage return, cash balance, available buying power and current rank.
- Below that a “Market Snapshot” showcases charts of the current market performance for the day. You can close this at any time by clicking the “X” on the right side.
- Next, you can see your open positions, including the market value, price purchased, the current profit/lost with the ability to chart your holdings. If you don’t have any stocks yet, there will be a list of ideas. You can click “Trade” to buy some shares in one of them.
- On the right side panel, you’ll see a breakdown of what is in your portfolio with a pie chart. You can toggle through asset class, symbols (and the percentage of your portfolio it comprises), industry and market cap. The pie chart will update based on your current holdings.
- “My Watchlist” is used to monitor stocks that you’re interested in buying. You can add more by clicking the plus “+” button.
- You can stay updated on news from the shared content on the Twitter page below your watchlist.
- On the left side panel, there are many useful links that take you to theinvestmentanalyst.com specific resources, and right below some useful links for students.
Account Balances
You can find your detailed account balances from “Portfolio Summary” under the Stock Game menu. You will be able to check your class rules by clicking the button “Rules”. Your instructor sets your currency, starting cash, interest rates, commission charges, trading dates, and a few more rules:
- Position Limit: This is how much of your portfolio you can invest in one single stock. For example, with a 25% position limit, you can invest up to 25% of your portfolio in Google stock, but not more.
- Day Trading: This allows you to buy and sell the same stock in the same day. If this is not allowed, you must wait until the next day to sell any stocks you buy.
- Allow trading on margin: This allows you to borrow money. This happens automatically—if you use up all your cash, you will automatically start borrowing more, up to your margin limit (meaning when your “buying power” is zero). Your loans will incur interest charges.
Buying Your First Stock
To buy your first stock, click on Stocks from under “Make a Trade” column on the Stock Game dropdown menu.
On the trading page, begin by entering the ticker symbol of the company you wish to trade. If you’re unsure of the symbol, simply start typing the company name — the system will suggest matching ticker symbols for you to choose from.
Once a valid symbol is entered, live quote data will appear, including:
Company name and logo
Last traded price
Current bid and ask prices
A chart of intraday performance
Analyst rating consensus reflecting current market sentiment
You do not buy or sell at the last traded price. As in real markets, trades are executed at the bid or ask price, depending on the type of order placed.
Bid Price: The highest price a buyer is currently willing to pay. If you're selling, this is the price you’ll receive.
Ask Price: The lowest price a seller is currently willing to accept. If you're buying, this is the price you’ll pay.
To execute a trade immediately at current market prices, use a Market Order. Other order types available include Limit, Stop, and Trailing Stop. For guidance on when and how to use these, we recommend watching the video tutorials linked on the platform.
Once the quote data has loaded, enter the number of shares you wish to trade. This will generate an Estimated Order Total (excluding commissions). To review a full breakdown including any commission charges, click “Preview” before finalizing your trade.
Click “Confirm” at the bottom of the page to submit your order. The system will queue your trade and execute it once the following conditions are satisfied:
Market Hours: Orders will only execute during market hours. If submitted outside of these hours, your order will remain pending and executed at the next open market using the opening price.
Limit/Stop Criteria: For limit or stop orders, execution will occur only if your specified price conditions are met.
Liquidity Constraint: You may only place trades for a number of shares that have actually traded in the live market on that day. In other words, you can’t simulate being a market maker — trades must reflect real-world liquidity.
Viewing your holdings
Once you’ve added one or more stocks to your portfolio, you can view them under “Open Positions” located within the “My Portfolio” section of the main menu.
This will display a table summarizing your current holdings.
Understanding the "Open Positions" Table
This table provides a real-time snapshot of your current holdings. Here's what each column or button represents:
Action Trade: Click this button to initiate a trade and close the position — i.e., sell all shares at the current market price. You’ll still have the opportunity to preview and edit the order before it’s submitted.
Symbol: The ticker symbol representing the security in your portfolio.
Round Info Buttons: Click these to open a detailed quote view and access the latest news related to the security.
Description: For equities, this displays the full company name.
Quantity: The number of shares you currently hold. A negative value indicates a short position.
Currency: Displays the currency in which the security is denominated — particularly important for international stocks.
Price Paid: The price at which you purchased the security.
Day’s Change: The price movement of the security so far during the current trading day.
Profit/Loss: Your total gain or loss on the position, shown in your portfolio's base currency.
Market Value: The current market value of the holding, based on the latest available price.
% Change: Your percentage return on the position, relative to the original purchase price.
Note: For U.S.-listed securities, the Last Price and Day’s Change fields will update every few seconds while markets are open, providing a near real-time view of your performance.
Chart views
In addition to the default List View, you can visualize your portfolio using performance charts for each holding, with options to view daily, monthly, or yearly trends.
To switch views, simply use the toggle buttons located above the portfolio table. This will load the corresponding Chart View, providing a graphical representation of each position’s performance over your selected time frame. The Chart View presents nearly all the same data as the List View but in a visual format. Each chart is color-coded for quick insight:
Green indicates a holding with a positive return
Red signals a holding with a negative return
This view offers a fast, intuitive way to assess portfolio performance at a glance — helping you quickly identify which positions are driving gains or losses.
Class Rankings and Portfolio Performance
You can now track your performance over time and against competitors after adding stocks to your portfolio. This allows you to assess how effectively your investment strategy is playing out in a competitive, real-world context. To access the challenge or class rankings, click on “My Rankings” from under the Stock Game button on the main menu.
This page will show each participant’s name, username, market value, current portfolio value, and total number of trades made, with their overall percentage return (and chart to show relative performance). You can also use the date switcher above the chart to view the rankings on any day in the past.
Trading and Order History
If you want to see the trades you’ve placed in the past, click “Transaction History” under “Stock Game” on the main menu:
This section displays a complete history of all executed trades in your portfolio. It does not include pending or unfilled orders, such as open limit or stop orders. You can filter the data by date range and export your trade history to Excel for further analysis.
Each entry includes a “Trade Again” button, allowing you to quickly return to the Trading page with the selected stock preloaded for a new buy or sell order. To view pending, cancelled, or unfilled orders, navigate to the “My Order History” page, located under the “Stock Game” section of the main menu.
Understanding Your Order History
Order Date: This is the date on which you initially placed the order. For pending orders, a “Cancel” button appears below the date, allowing you to cancel the order if desired.
Research Tools
You can find all of the research tools under the Investing Research button from the main menu.
Quotes & Research Overview
The Quotes/Research section is your primary hub for in-depth company and market analysis. By entering any ticker symbol, you can access a comprehensive suite of research tools and data, including:
Detailed Quotes: View real-time pricing, company overviews, interactive charts, and recent news headlines related to the selected company.
Financial Statements: Access income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements — essential for fundamental analysis.
Option Chains: Examine current option pricing and open interest for listed contracts.
Futures & Commodities: Explore pricing and related data for global futures and commodity markets.
Additional Research Tools
Symbol Lookup: Use this tool to find a company’s ticker symbol if you’re unsure of the exact code.
Company News: Aggregates the latest news articles and updates for the selected company, offering insight into sentiment and catalysts.
Key Ratios: This includes critical metrics such as revenue per share, multi-year growth trends, gross and operating margins, current ratios, and debt-to-equity ratios — useful for quick financial health assessments.
Share Performance: Track key performance indicators including 52-week high/low, earnings per share, moving averages (10, 21, 50, 100, 200-day), as well as alpha, beta, R-squared, and standard deviation.
Earnings Reports: Provides detailed breakdowns of earnings announcements, consensus estimates, and actual results — including earnings surprises and trend deviations.
SEC Filings: Access all publicly filed documents for U.S. companies, exportable in PDF, Word, or Excel formats.
Trades: View a granular order book for the stock, offering transparency into trading activity and liquidity.
Price History: Explore historical stock prices, with the option to export the data to Excel for further analysis.
Analyst Ratings: See consensus ratings and target price forecasts from professional analysts.
Company Profile: Includes business descriptions, operational segments, and key members of the management team.
Corporate Events: Highlights significant events that have impacted the stock price, including earnings reports, dividend announcements, stock splits, and other market-moving developments.
Interactive Charts: Perform technical analysis with customizable, comparative charts — allowing overlays of multiple stocks and technical indicators.
Market Summary: Offers a broad overview of market performance across North American and international exchanges.
Virtual Stock Trading – Securities and Exchanges
Stock-Trak’s virtual portfolio simulation supports a wide variety of security types and exchanges.
US. equities that are actively traded on the NYSE, AMEX , and NASDAQ exchanges at real-time bid/ask prices
Specific global exchanges and prices used:
European: London (LSE – Delayed), Paris (End of Day), Brussels (End of Day), Amsterdam (End of Day), Dublin (End of Day), Frankfurt (End of Day), Zurich (End of Day), Stockholm (End of Day), Copenhagen (End of Day), Madrid (End of Day), Helsinki (End of Day), Oslo (End of Day), Vienna (End of Day), Lisbon (End of Day), Budapest (End of Day), Athens (Delayed), Moscow (End of Day), Prague (End of Day)
Latin American: Brazil (End of Day), Chile (End of Day), Argentina (End of Day), Mexico (Delayed)
Asian: Bombay (End of Day), Hong Kong (End of Day), Shanghai (End of Day), Shenzhen (End of Day), Jakarta (End of Day), Tokyo (End of Day), Kuala Lumpur (End of Day), Thailand (End of Day), Vietnam (End of Day), South Korea (End of Day), Taiwan (End of Day)
African: Botswana (End of Day), Ghana (End of Day), Nairobi (End of Day)
Other: Toronto (Delayed), New Zealand (End of Day), Sydney (Delayed), Tel Aviv (Delayed)
US. options that are actively traded on OPRA at real-time bid/ask prices
US. futures that are actively traded on the CME and CBOT at real-time bid/ask prices.
US. futures options that are actively traded on the CME and CBOT at real-time bid/ask prices
US. mutual funds that are actively traded on NASD
A selection of U.S. corporate and treasury bonds at delayed prices
A selection of U.S. spot contracts for metals, grains, and FX at real-time prices
A selection of cryptocurrencies
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