Virtual cash, real prices, and a ranking by return — the mechanics behind a stock market game, and what makes one fair.
A stock market game gives every player a starting balance of virtual cash, lets them trade real or realistic market prices, and ranks them by how their virtual portfolio performs over a set period. The trades aren't real — no money changes hands — but the prices and the outcomes are, which is what makes the ranking mean something.
Everyone begins with the same virtual balance, which is what makes the comparison fair — a portfolio worth 10% more than another player's started 10% ahead only if the starting balance was already unequal, so games keep it equal on purpose. From there, players buy and sell against live or realistic market prices, exactly as they would with a real brokerage account. Their portfolio's total value — cash plus whatever they're holding, priced at the current market — is recalculated as prices move, and players are ranked by return: the percentage change from where they started.
Most stock market games run in rounds rather than continuing forever, and Fantasy Finance calls its round a season: one calendar month, after which every player resets to the same starting balance and a new season begins. A reset matters for the same reason an equal starting balance does — without one, an early lead compounds indefinitely, and a game that ran for a year would mostly be measuring who joined first rather than who is currently trading well. A monthly reset also means a bad month doesn't follow you forever; the next season starts everyone level again.
Three things, mainly. An equal starting balance, so returns are actually comparable. A ranking by percentage return rather than raw portfolio value, so a $100,000 account and a $10,000 account produce the same ranking for the same percentage gain. And rules that apply identically to everyone — the same trading hours, the same available instruments, the same limits on position size — so nobody is playing a different game than anyone else on the leaderboard.
Say a season starts with $100,000 for every player. One player buys a stock and holds it through a 12% rise: their portfolio is worth $112,000, an 12% return. Another player splits their capital across three positions, two of which rise 5% and one of which falls 3%, weighted roughly evenly: their overall return works out to about 2.3%. Both are ranked purely on that percentage — 12% beats 2.3% regardless of the fact that the first player made one trade and the second made three, or that both started with identical capital. That's the entire scoring mechanism: percentage return, nothing else.
No. The cash, the trades and the portfolio values are all virtual — prices are usually real or realistic, but nothing is actually bought or sold, and no money is won or paid out.
Most share the same basics: an equal starting balance, a time limit, and ranking by return. Beyond that, games differ — some add short selling, leverage, options or leagues, and some limit players to stocks and ETFs only.
Some do support that directly, letting you create a private group with its own leaderboard rather than only ranking you against strangers — see [a stock market game with friends](/stock-market-game-with-friends/) for how that works in Fantasy Finance specifically.
Educational content, not financial advice. Fantasy Finance is a game played with virtual capital — nothing here is a recommendation to trade with real money.