The #1 FREE
Stock Market Game

HowTheMarketWorks is a free stock market game where students and other users practice investing with virtual money using real market data. Users build and manage their own investment portfolios, research investments, place trades, and track their performance over time. Teachers can also create private classroom contests and customize the game for their students.

Teachers can use HowTheMarketWorks to give students hands-on experience with investing, financial markets, portfolio management, risk, and diversification. Teachers can create private stock market games for their classes, choose contest dates and starting cash, customize trading rules, assign built-in lessons, and track student progress with teacher reports.

A stock market simulation helps students learn how investing works by making real-world investment decisions without risking real money. With HowTheMarketWorks, students can learn how to research investments, build a diversified portfolio, understand risk and return, follow market movements, and see how their investment decisions affect their portfolio over time.

Students can get started by creating a free HowTheMarketWorks account or joining a stock market contest created by their teacher. They receive virtual cash that they can use to research and trade investments using real market data. Students can then monitor their portfolios, complete assigned lessons, and compare their performance with classmates through the contest rankings.

HowTheMarketWorks uses real market data to give students a realistic investing experience. Students make trades with virtual money and can follow how changes in market prices affect their portfolios, allowing them to practice investing without putting real money at risk.

The ideal length of a classroom stock market game depends on your course and learning objectives. Many teachers run their simulation for several weeks or an entire semester so students have time to experience different market conditions and evaluate their investment decisions. HowTheMarketWorks lets teachers choose their own contest dates, making it easy to fit a stock market simulation into their class schedule.

Students should not be graded only on who earns the highest portfolio return, since short-term market performance can reward excessive risk or luck. Teachers can instead grade students on participation, investment research, portfolio decisions, diversification, and what they learn from the experience. HowTheMarketWorks also provides built-in lessons and teacher reports that can help educators track student activity and progress.