from Hacker News

We're two software geeks trying to build our own trading simulator app for beginners which could teach some basics of technical analysis and won't be too boring.

You can join the early test program here if interested: https://threeinvesteers.com/

Do you think this is a decent idea?

So far we've solved the main technical challenges and built a solid backend solution for real-time prices, and also got the first feedback regarding the concept from some early users.

We've polished the idea slightly using the feedback but still have some open questions.

Would be great to hear your feedback.

The problem we'd like to solve

Traditional paper trading is nice to test out a platform, but apart from that, it doesn't teach you much.

If you can go all-in without consequences, there is no reason not to just “gamble”.

Nothing to win, nothing to lose creates totally different psychology from real trading.

Here's our upgraded idea

A trading simulator for beginners with real-time market prices (stocks, FX, crypto) where users have limited chances to perform wild YOLO bets and are motivated to learn something.

How we could do it

1. Motivation. To boost motivation, three top-performing users receive real money prizes (probably Amazon gift cards) each week.

2. YOLO management. To avoid users making reckless bets that leave the results almost essentially resting on luck rather than skills, we could implement the following things: Trade size capped to a max of X% of available cash. Leaderboard rank not using plain returns, but risk-adjusted returns or/and by setting a max drawdown limit.

3. Learning. Users gain initial & extra game money by completing educational quizzes. Interactive pattern recognition training module, where users are presented with selected trading setup ideas on live charts (pattern, S&R levels, trendlines, MAs, etc.) and can test them by placing simulated trades. This way beginner users could learn a thing or two of what goes in a trading setup. Also, they could get a reality check when seeing that even good-looking setups can often fail... without burning their student loan.

What I'm still not sure about

To pay for the market data and prize money we would obviously need some form of paid features.

What could be a good and fair option, in your opinion?

A small participation fee or perhaps some in-app purchases like more education materials and quizzes, a wider choice of assets, extra leverage,...?