How MockVest Works
Learn how stock markets work using a paper portfolio without real money or real trades.
Educational • Paper-based • No real trades • No investment advice
Step 1: Create Your Paper Portfolio
When you sign up on MockVest, you create a paper portfolio — a virtual space where all buying and selling happens using simulated money.
- No real money involved
- No brokerage account required
- No connection to real trading systems
- For learning and analysis only
- Creates starting paper capital
- Prepares your portfolio for trades
- Starts tracking activity from day one
Step 2: What Happens When You Buy a Stock
When you place a paper buy order, no real trade is executed. You specify the buy price, and MockVest records the transaction at that price for simulation and learning purposes.
- Paper cash balance decreases
- Stock is added to portfolio
- Average buy price is calculated
- Quantity is recorded
How Prices Move in a Paper Portfolio
In real stock markets, prices can change every second during market hours.
Since MockVest is a paper-based learning platform focused on long-term understanding, prices are updated a few times a day using delayed market data.
- Prices are delayed (typically ~15 minutes)
- Updates are sufficient to track behaviour & P&L
- Long-term learning is unaffected
Investing outcomes are shaped over days, months, and years and not by second-to-second movements.
How Portfolio Value Changes Over Time
As stock prices move, the market value of your paper holdings changes.
Unrealized P&L shows the difference between your buy price and the current market price for shares you still hold. These are paper gains or losses only.
Step 3: What Happens When You Sell a Stock
When you place a paper sell order, the system closes part or all of your position.
- Paper cash balance increases
- Stock quantity reduces or closes
- Sold portion becomes realized
How Profit & Loss Is Calculated When You Sell (FIFO)
MockVest uses FIFO — First-In, First-Out — to calculate realized profit or loss.
The shares you bought first are considered sold first. Realized P&L reflects profit or loss from shares already sold.
From Trades to Insights
MockVest is more than a calculator. Every paper transaction you make helps the system understand how you interact with the market.
- How often you trade
- Which stocks you trade repeatedly
- How long you hold positions
- How you exit trades
- How your portfolio behaves over time
These observations are based entirely on your paper activity. no assumptions, no predictions.
Insights Designed for Learning
Insights are descriptive and retrospective. they help you reflect, not predict.
What MockVest Insights Are
- Educational
- Paper-based
- Based on your activity
- Designed to improve understanding
What They Are Not
- Buy or sell recommendations
- Predictions
- Live trading signals
- Investment advice
Why This Learning Approach Matters
Investing is not just about returns. it’s about understanding decisions, discipline, and behaviour over time.
MockVest gives you a safe environment to explore this process before risking real capital.
Learn Before You Invest
Create your paper portfolio and start understanding how markets and your decisions really work.
Create Your Free Paper Portfolio