Frequently Asked Questions

No prior trading experience is required! RankTrader is designed for traders at all levels:

Complete beginners can:

• Learn trading basics through our blog and educational content
• Practice with virtual money without risk
• Start with simple strategies and build complexity over time
• Learn from more experienced traders on the leaderboards

Experienced traders can:

• Test new strategies without risking capital
• Compete against others to sharpen skills
• Experiment with different asset classes or timeframes
• Maintain trading discipline during market downturns

The competitive leaderboard format works for all skill levels, as you’re primarily competing against your own improvement while learning from others’ performance.

RankTrader combines paper trading with competitive leaderboards to make learning more engaging:

1. Create an account and receive virtual starting capital
2. Trade stocks, options, or other securities using real market data
3. Track your performance with detailed analytics and metrics
4. Compete on leaderboards to see how you rank against other traders
5. Improve your skills by analyzing your trades and learning from the competition

The competitive element adds pressure similar to real trading, helping you develop discipline and emotional control.

There’s no fixed timeline, but most successful traders paper trade for 3-6 months minimum before transitioning to real money. The key milestones to achieve before going live:

1. Consistent profitability over at least 100 trades
2. Documented trading plan with clear entry/exit rules
3. Risk management discipline (never risk more than 1-2% per trade)
4. Emotional control during both winning and losing streaks
5. Understanding of your strategy’s strengths and weaknesses

When you do transition to real trading, start with the minimum amount you’re comfortable losing completely. This helps you adjust to the psychological differences between paper and live trading while keeping risk minimal.

Paper trading uses real market prices and realistic execution, but it has limitations:

What’s realistic:

• Market prices and movements
• Order types and execution mechanics
• Technical analysis and chart reading
• Strategy testing and refinement

What’s different:

• No emotional pressure from risking real money
• Perfect execution without slippage (on most platforms)
• No real consequences for losses
• Market impact doesn’t apply to large orders

RankTrader helps bridge this gap by adding competitive pressure through leaderboards, which creates a psychological element closer to real trading. However, nothing fully replaces the experience of trading with actual capital.

RankTrader supports paper trading for major asset classes:

• Stocks: US equities traded on NYSE, NASDAQ, and other major exchanges
• ETFs: Exchange-traded funds covering various sectors and strategies
• Options: Call and put options on supported underlying securities

All trading uses real-time or delayed market data depending on your subscription level, ensuring you practice with realistic prices and market conditions.

More asset classes including futures and cryptocurrency may be added based on user demand.

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a pooled investment security that holds a basket of assets, such as stocks or bonds. ETFs trade on exchanges like a stock, allowing intraday pricing and liquidity.

Paper trading is a simulated trading environment where you practice buying and selling securities with virtual money while tracking real market prices. It allows you to test strategies, learn trading mechanics, and build confidence without risking actual capital.

On RankTrader, paper trading is enhanced with competitive leaderboards, so you can see how your performance stacks up against other traders in real-time.