Umoo – Virtual Trading

If you are not willing to trade in the real markets but are interested in trading, there are sites on the Internet that offer virtual trading, where virtual money is used to trade but real market indices are used as benchmarks. There are often competitions involved, with winners of the game round winning certain prizes or even being offered a trader position with investment institution. Some sites that offer this kind of trading practice and entertainment are ASX and Yahoo Finance. Now I have just came across one more such site: Umoo, virtual stock trading.

Umoo is a virtual trading game where one can practice her trading skills and without the risk of losing money. The site offers real-time market data and various tools needed for stock market analysis. Using these is fun, entertaining, and educational even if you are not prepared to trade in the real stock market.

The description from the web site is:

UMOO is the leading fantasy stock trading game, offering the thrill and profit opportunity of the financial markets in a unique competitive format.
It's an alternative, virtual stock market contest where risk is minimal and the opportunity to win is real.
Traders pay a fee (buy-in) in order to enter a tournament of their choice, where they receive virtual money with which to build and cultivate virtual portfolios based on real-time stock market quotes in competitive trading tournaments.
The objective of the players is to earn the highest returns on their portfolios. Throughout the tournament, players are benchmarked against others in real-time; at the end of the tournament the winners are those with the highest returns relative to the other traders in the tournament. Winners receive cash prizes according to The payout structure of the tournament.
Real-time market data and a variety of information & research/reference tools are offered on the UMOO platform to help traders make informed dynamic decisions while trading. Real market trading tools are also offered, including limit and stop loss orders and the ability to sell short.
In sum, traders on UMOO can both develop and deploy trading skills for fun and profit.