Learn The Stock Market Without Risking Real Money, At www.WallStreetSurvivor.com

Many people are aware that the stock market holds the potential for profits and building personal wealth if the right investment or trading strategy is implemented. They glance at headlines that highlight the latest activities of Wall Street titans and investing stars. Despite the interest and curiosity that allot of people have about the stock market, most people's exposure to stocks is limited to retirement accounts and traditional vehicles like mutual funds. There is good reason for much of the hesitation among individuals who observe market activity from the sidelines, but don't wager their own money. Individual stocks can be very risky and many end up going to zero instead of going up. Even the overall stock market can experience high volatility and painful crashes that can be very unsettling and nerve racking for new & inexperienced investors. There is also a pretty big learning curve for wannabe traders. The stock market requires allot of understanding and technical knowledge in order to become successful. Regardless of what's keeping you out of the stock market, there are plenty of ways to gain information and educate yourself before risking your money. The internet provides allot of valuable resources and information, although it can be difficult to separate the quality from the junk. Another great thing that the internet has made available to investors is various social investing sites and simulated trading platforms. One of these sites worth checking out is www.WallStreetSurvivor.com.

WallStreetSurvivor.com - Competition, Rewards, Community, Education, and Simulated Trading

Wall Street Survivor is a site that combines social networking (like Facebook or MySpace) with stock market research and simulated portfolios that allow users to mimic trading and investing in the stock market without putting any of their hard earned money at risk. The sites goal is to provide fantasy stock trading that closely simulates using a real brokerage account. It actually does a really good job of doing just that.

Simulated Trading On WallStreetSurvivor.com

 Though stock quotes and trade execution prices are delayed by 15 minutes the Wall Street Survivor platform does a good job of giving users a feel for what trading a real money portfolio is like. Though fantasy trading/paper trading is always allot less stressful than trading real money, it can be a good way to become familiarized with the ins and outs of stock trading. In this respect the WallStreetSurvivor.com platform can be very helpful to aspiring traders. Both long (make money when stocks go up) and short (make money when stocks go down) trades are simulated on the site. Commissions are also accounted for and limit orders (specifying a max buy price or minimum sell price) & stop losses (order to sell when a stock hits a certain price) can be chosen when placing your simulated trades. Other features that are designed to mimic the real life trading experience are the option to trade on margin (borrowed money) and your cash balance earns interest.

Competing On WallStreetSurvivor.com

Though one should always be cautious about thinking that simulated or paper trading performance can be easily replicated with a real money portfolio, Wall Street Survivor has built a site that can be potentially beneficial in building real trading skills. One aspect of the site that helps to facilitate the amateur trader's development is the competitive contests. The site ranks the performance of user's contest portfolios weekly, monthly, and lifetime. Top performers have a chance at winning cash and other rewards. Though still not the same as trading real money, the competitive aspect can help to build disciplined trading strategies that can also be applicable to real money accounts.

Rewards At WallStreetSurvivor.com

By participating on www.WallStreetSurvivor.com you will earn loyalty points along the way. For example submitting an article that gets published on the site is worth 25,000 points and referring a friend who ends meeting the minimum usage criteria is worth 15,000 points. Other activities like logging in (100 points) and placing trades (50 points) will also earn you rewards. These points can be exchanged for Amazon Gift Cards at the Wall Street Survivor store.

The Community On WallStreetSurvivor.com

Like other popular social networking sites, Wall Street Survivor has a social component. You can network and meet new people by asking them to be your buddy. Like Facebook you can communicate by posting to their wall and messaging them. This can be a great opportunity to find skilled traders who do consistently well on the site. If you get to be good enough friends there is always the possibility to exchange valuable investment strategies and profitable trading ideas.

Education On WallStreetSurvivor.com

Besides providing a place to practice trading and learn from others, Wall Street Survivor has many other educational resources available on their website. These resources include a comprehensive glossary of investing & trading terms, links to market news, articles, video tutorials, beginner level 101 pages covering investing, trading, and economics, and also more advanced topical investing information.

More About WallStreetSurvivor.com

On top of social networking, simulated trading experience, and financial market education the Wall Street Survivor website even offers allot more. Just check out all of the following features available to users free of charge!

Stock & Market Research - The Wall Street Survivor website includes a research center with a wide array of customized market data, earnings calendar, watch lists, stock screeners and other research tools.

Trading Games - In addition to an ongoing competitive contest that revolves around weekly and monthly portfolio performance, Wall Street Survivor offers a couple of daily stock trading games were you can win money. One is called "Bull's-eye Jackpot" were you try to guess the closing price of the hot stock of the day in order to win the jackpot. The other game is called "Guess The Next Tick" were you wager 50 of your loyalty points on whether a given stock will go up or down in the next interval.

Learn To Trade Options - Not too long ago Wall Street Survivor added a weekly contest for options trading. In this contest users can manage a simulated portfolio trading option contracts. The winner of this weekly contest gets a free subscription to Bernie Schaeffer's Weekend Trader Newsletter.

Advanced Membership - For as low as $19.99 a month Wall Street Survivor offers an advanced packaged membership which includes services that provide stock picks from the pros, real-time quotes on options and stocks, and survivor spy were you gain access to the trades of high performing members.

Affiliate Program - The affiliate program for Wall Street Survivor allows webmasters to put banners and links on their sites and earn revenue from any members that join through them.

There are also other stock simulations and social investing sites. I plan to possibly write about some of the other options, but WallStreetSurvivor.com is one of the better ones, so readers should check it out if they are interested. Your Welcome to let me know about your experience with comments.

Thanks for reading!