StockChatFree during the beta
Free paper trading app for iPhone
Practice with $100,000 in simulated money at real prices, inside the group chat where you already argue about stocks.
Free on iPhone. No invite needed. Simulated money, real prices.
How it works
Three taps in, you're risking nothing at all.
Install the beta
TestFlight, then StockChat. About two minutes, and the walkthrough does the ordering for you.
Join the beta ›Turn on Paper trading
It is off by default. Open Profile and flip the Paper trading switch, which adds the Portfolio tab and a Buy button on stock pages.
Join the beta ›Open Portfolio and trade
The account is waiting with $100,000 in simulated cash. Buy in whole shares or dollar amounts at real market prices.
Join the beta ›Summary
An honest benchmark, not just a number.
Most practice accounts show you a total and stop there. This one puts your return next to the index over the same period, which is the comparison that tells you whether you were good or the market was.
- Return vs the S&P 500, over the same window, side by side.
- Every timeframe, 5D through 1Y and all of it.
- Where the money sits, cash and each holding as a share of the account.
The Summary tab. Illustrative example, simulated money.
Positions
Track your simulated portfolio.
Seven columns, all sortable, with today's move kept separate from the total so a good day inside a bad position is still legible.
- Ticker, Value, Today G/L and Total G/L across the first four columns, with the ticker pinned while you scroll.
- Shares, Avg cost and Last sit to the right of them. Swipe the table sideways to reach them.
- Tap any column header to sort, or tap a row for the individual lots and full position detail.
- Unrealized only, so closed positions do not flatter the table. Realized gains live in Activity.
Positions, sorted by value.
Activity
A record you cannot quietly rewrite.
Every stock order is dated and priced. It is the part that makes practice worth anything, because it is hard to remember a call as smarter than it was when the timestamp is sitting right there.
- Every order, grouped by day, with the price you got.
- Realized gains on the sells that closed a position.
- Orders that did not go through are kept too, not hidden.
Activity, grouped by day.
The chat
The reasoning sits next to the trade.
Say a ticker with a dollar sign and a live card drops straight into the thread. The call, the argument about it and the price at the time all end up in the same place.
- Type $NVDA and the card appears inline, with the price, the chart and how far it has run since whoever said it first.
- Real bubbles, reactions and replies, so it still feels like the group chat you already have with these people.
- Invite-only, with no public feed and nothing for strangers to discover.
A ticker card inline in the thread.
Why a group
Practicing alone is where the learning quietly stops.
Most paper trading apps are single player. You make a call, and the only record is a row in a table you can ignore. In a group chat the reasoning is written down next to the trade, which tends to make the practice more useful, or at least harder to rewrite afterwards.
StockChat also keeps a running list of the tickers the group has talked about, ranked by how much they have moved since they were first mentioned. It ranks tickers rather than people, so it reads as a record of what the group discussed rather than a scoreboard.
Worth being clear about: simulated results do not predict real results. Paper trading removes the two things that make investing hard, which are your own money and your own nerves. It is good for learning mechanics and terrible at teaching you how you will behave in a drawdown.
FAQ
Reasonable questions.
What is paper trading?
Paper trading means buying and selling stocks with simulated money at real market prices. Nothing is bought, nothing is sold and no real money moves, but the prices, the position sizes and the profit or loss are all calculated as if they were. It is how most people learn the mechanics before risking anything.
Is paper trading real money?
No. A paper trading account holds simulated money only. It is not connected to a bank or a brokerage, you cannot deposit into it or withdraw from it, and no trade you make in it reaches a real market.
How do you start paper trading?
Pick a platform that offers it, open the simulated account and place your first order. On StockChat you install the free beta on iPhone, turn on Paper trading in Profile (it is off by default), then open the Portfolio tab, where the account is waiting with $100,000 in simulated cash. There is nothing to fund and no card to add.
Is paper trading free?
On StockChat, yes, and the whole beta is free. Most brokers also offer it free to account holders, though some require you to open a funded account first.
Is paper trading worth it?
For learning the mechanics, yes. For learning how you will behave in a real drawdown, no. Paper trading removes the two things that make investing hard, which are your own money and your own nerves, so treat a good simulated run as evidence you understand the buttons rather than evidence you can invest.
Do I need a brokerage account?
No. StockChat is not a broker and places no real trades. Nothing you do in paper trading touches a real account or real money.
Can my friends see my portfolio?
Only if you talk about it. Paper trading sits inside a private group chat, so what you share is what you post.
Practice with people, not alone.
Install TestFlight, install StockChat, start a group, then turn on Paper trading in Profile. The account is waiting with $100,000 in simulated cash.
Join the betaFree · iPhone · no invite needed