Create or join
A league is a game with other people. With Free, you can participate in one at a time: create it yourself or accept an invitation. Its dates, balance and number of people must fit everyone's plan.
HELP · START FROM ZERO
Learn to invest by playing, without risking real money
TradeArena is a game played with fictional money. Pick companies, buy and sell simulated shares, and compare your return with your friends. You do not need any stock-market experience, and you never deposit money to invest.
Your first league in three steps
A league is a private game. Its people, calendar, rules, portfolios and standings all live in one place.
Get fictional funds
When play begins, every participant receives the same virtual balance. This money only exists inside the game: it cannot be deposited or withdrawn and has no real-world value.
Choose and compete
Find a company by its name or symbol, decide how much to buy and follow its performance. The standings compare percentage gains and losses, giving everyone the same reference point.
Who can do what
The owner creates the league. In draft, owners and administrators can manage participants, change the dates and start the game. Once it is active, they can adjust the end date and finish it early.
Before play starts, an owner or administrator chooses the dates and fictional balance within every participant's limits. If anyone is on Free, the league allows up to 2 people, 1 month and USD 10,000 per person. The starting balance is fixed when play starts and is equal for everyone.
Any member can rename a draft or active league. Members can play, view results and leave; owners cannot leave their own league.
A pending invitation takes up a seat and expires after seven days. Only an account using the invited email can accept it.
Someone accepting after play has begun gets a new portfolio and the same starting balance, but no results from before they joined.
From draft to final standings
A league moves through three easy-to-recognise stages. Buying and selling are only available during its active calendar.
Draft
Choose the name, dates and fictional balance, then invite people. There are no portfolios, trades or standings yet.
Active
Starting creates the portfolios and fixes the rules. Once the start date arrives, you can submit or cancel orders, record simulated trades, and follow your portfolio and the standings.
Finished
When the end date arrives—or a manager ends the league early—trading stops. The standings and history remain available as a record of the game.
Buying and selling, without the jargon
A share represents a small piece of a company. If you buy and its price rises, your portfolio gains value; if it falls, your portfolio loses value. Everything is simulated.
Buying uses the fictional cash in your portfolio. Selling returns cash that you can use again, but you can only sell shares you already own.
During the regular session, a market order confirms an up-to-date indicative price and fetches it again when submitted. It fills immediately from that second quote, or creates no movement if the market is closed or data fails.
Founder and Pro can also schedule a limit order: choose the maximum buy or minimum sell price and a validity of 1 to 5 days, never beyond the end of the league. Free keeps market orders only.
A scheduled order fills at its limit price when a valid session snapshot proves the crossing. The range before submission does not count; you can cancel while pending and, if it expires, it is shown as expired and you receive a private notification.
An order fills completely or does not fill; there are no partial fills. You also cannot borrow money, trade on margin or sell shares you do not own.
“Record trade” is for entering a simulated purchase or sale that already happened during the league calendar. If this is your first time, start with a normal order—it is the simplest route.
A confirmed trade is never deleted or rewritten. If it needs a correction, TradeArena adds a compensating movement so that the history stays transparent.
What other people can see
The league is private: only its members can enter and view its shared area.
The standings show each participant's name, chosen companies, portfolio allocation and percentage gain or loss.
Your quantities, prices, fees, available cash, total value and orders only appear in your private portfolio. You can see your own complete history.
People outside the league cannot find it or access its data, even if they know the link.
Which price will I see?
Founder and Pro private portfolios may append the latest validated realtime point to official history; Free and shared surfaces continue to use delayed official data. Standings never reveal private realtime prices or amounts. If the provider fails, TradeArena keeps the official view and never invents a price.
Free or Founder
Free allows participation in 1 open league—draft or active—with up to 2 people, 1 calendar month and USD 10,000 in fictional funds per participant. Founder expands this to 5 open leagues, 10 people per league, 12 months and USD 1,000,000 in fictional funds, and adds the Founder badge.
Both leagues you create and those you join count. Finished leagues do not count; leaving a league also frees your personal slot. Receiving an invitation does not use that limit.
Free users can join a Founder's league if it meets all Free limits, which remain in place while they participate.
If you downgrade, you keep your existing leagues, but cannot add others or expand their rules until you meet the limits again. Existing Pro allows 5 open leagues in total; new Pro subscriptions are no longer offered.
Compare Free and FounderTRADEARENA
You now know enough to begin
Try a short league with one other person, choose a company you recognise and see what happens after the close. The best way to understand it is to play your first round.