Is this a good learning tool? Would you recommend one in particular? I'm reading some books by Peter Lynch and Benjamin Graham. But it would be cool to get a more practical form of learning... Would I be wasting my time with simulators? If so, can you recommend and alternative? Thank you very much for your time in advance.
Demo accounts run exactly the same as real accounts. Just fake money you are experimenting on. Try a few, see which one you get on with. I would recommend a Metatrader 4 platform. Take time to learn the indicators and tools on there.
Yes, they are, because you get to experience trading, but with fake virtual money, and it will give you a slight idea of what you'd need to succeed. I will second Casper, Metatrader 4 is pretty good. Have a good one!
Simulators are the best way to learn in my opinion. I mean, it's exactly the same as trading real stocks, the only difference is you're using fake money. It allows you to see exactly how much you would make/lose.
Will they help people who want to do day trading and long term investing alike? Thank you very much! Will be downloading Metatrader 4 tonight.
As long as you keep up. Like I said, they mimic the market perfectly because they use exactly the same numbers. If you invest in a stock and make $100 in a day, that's how much you'd make in real life. If you make $10,000 in a year, that's how much you would have made in real life.
They're okay, especially for people that don't understand how investing works. However, I'd truly recommend that people just jump into investing, or at least start learning the basics, in a real account. You're wasting your time using simulators because you could be profiting from your investments. There are easy enough ways to get started and almost guarantee gains, albeit very minimal ones for "guaranteed" earners.
On the same token, you could say that you could be making your first, learning losses while the currency is fake. We make mistakes, and simulators allow you to learn the pitfalls of investing before you actually need to put your own capital up. Also you can use them before you have enough cash to start.
This sounds like it could be a lot of fun and a good learning tool. Does anyone know of one for Mac computers? Or iPad apps? I would love to give one a try, and I can run windows on my Mac as I do for some games, but really prefer the apple OS and would love to try this on my Mac at home.