The Investing Simulator (Investing in the sidebar, and the stock market simulator in older articles) gives each student a cash balance to invest in real companies at real market prices. Students research a stock, place buy and sell orders, explain each trade in writing, and follow their portfolio for as long as you run it. This guide covers what students learn, every setting, how trading and market prices actually work, how to follow your class, and grading.
Available on: Intertwined Plus and Pro. If you're on Intertwined Solo, you can start a free 14-day trial of the Investing Simulator once (see Trying a simulator free with a 14-day trial).
What students learn
Risk, diversification, and what putting everything in one stock does to a portfolio
The difference between a company's price and its value
Why time in the market tends to beat timing the market
Reading a quote, a chart and a set of financial statements
Gains on paper versus gains banked by selling, and how a return compares with the market as a whole
Every trade asks students "Why are you making this trade?", and they can't place an order without an answer. Over a unit, those written reasons become a record of their thinking that's worth more than the final number.
Opening the settings
Go to Classrooms > your class > Simulators. (You can also click Investing under Simulators in the sidebar, then choose a class.)
In the simulator picker on the right, choose Investing Simulator.
Make sure Setup is selected. You'll see the Investing Simulator Settings.
Every setting, explained
Simulation Status
Click Activate Simulation to open trading for the class. The status changes to Active and you'll see "Simulation activated!" Click Deactivate at any time to pause trading. While it's paused, students can still look around, but an order gets "The stock simulator is not active for your class right now." Portfolios are kept as they are.
This card also has Preview student view, which opens the student pages filled with sample data so you can see what students see before they start. See Previewing a simulator before your students do.
Starting Student Balance
The cash each student (or each group) begins with. New classes start at $100,000, which is also the recommendation. To change it, click Edit, enter a whole number from $1 to $1,000,000, and click Save Balance.
Important: a student's cash is always worked out from the starting balance plus everything they've bought and sold. If you change the starting balance after students have traded, every student's cash moves up or down by the same difference right away. Set it before trading begins.
Trading Schedule
By default there's no date limit and students can trade any time. Two optional switches narrow that:
Limit to specific dates: pick a start date and an end date. Trading opens on the start date and closes at the end of the last day.
Limit daily trading hours: pick an open time and a close time. Outside those hours, trading is closed for your class. Times are in your local time zone.
Click Save Schedule. A student who tries to trade outside your schedule sees "Trading is closed right now. Check your class's trading schedule." Their order isn't saved, so they'll need to place it again later.
Trading Rules
Three switches, all off by default:
Allow day trading: when off, a stock bought today can't be sold until a later day. Students who try see "Day trading is off for your class. You can't sell a stock on the same day you bought it." Leaving this off is a gentle way to discourage rapid in-and-out trading.
Allow buying on margin and Allow short-selling: advanced strategies for experienced classes. For a standard unit, leave both off.
Click Save Trading Rules after changing any of them.
Weekly Deposits & Interest
Weekly deposit: cash added to every student's balance once a week, like a paycheck going into a brokerage account. Good for teaching regular investing.
Interest on cash (APY): a yearly rate paid on uninvested cash, credited each week at one fifty-second of the rate. Good for showing that cash isn't free to hold, but isn't worthless either.
Leave a field blank to turn it off, then click Save. Payouts happen automatically each week while the simulation is active. Run this week's payout now applies this week's deposit and interest immediately, and it's safe to click more than once: nobody gets paid twice for the same week. Students see these credits under Cash paid in on their Orders page.
Investment Groups
Groups let students invest together. Everyone in a group shares one portfolio: one starting balance, one set of holdings, and any member can trade for the group.
Type a name in New group name and click Add Group.
In the student list below, use the dropdown next to each student to choose their group. It saves as soon as you pick.
To give a group its own weekly deposit, click the edit button on the group and enter an amount. Leave it blank to use the class default.
Deleting a group makes its students ungrouped again. Set up groups before anyone trades: a student's past trades count toward whatever portfolio they belong to, so moving a student who has already traded into a group mixes their trades into the group's account.
Reset Simulation
Reset Simulation permanently deletes every student's holdings and trade history in the class, clears weekly deposits and interest, and puts everyone back at the starting balance. It can't be undone. It's useful after a practice week, before a competition begins. There's no way to reset a single student.
How trading works
Students search for a company, open its page, and place an order in the Place order card: Buy or Sell, an order type, a number of whole shares, and their reason. Orders can't spend more cash than a student has or sell more shares than they own.
Order types
Market: fills right away at the latest price the simulator has. This is the order type to teach first, and the one we recommend for class.
Limit and Stop: don't fill right away. They wait under Waiting to fill on the student's Orders page and may never fill.
Market prices and timing
Prices come from real market data, but they aren't tick-by-tick live quotes. When an order goes through, it uses the latest price the simulator can get at that moment, so the filled price can differ a little from the estimate a student saw. Portfolio values on students' pages refresh about every 15 minutes.
Your class's trading schedule is separate from the stock market's hours. A market order placed in the evening or on a weekend still fills right away, at the latest price available. If you want every trade to happen on prices that are actually moving, set daily trading hours that match the market's (9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern). The simulator's header tells students whether the market is open or closed.
Charts, the heatmap, the screener and news pages come from a third-party market widget, so their numbers can differ slightly from the prices the simulator uses.
What students experience
Students open the simulator from their Simulators page and find four sections: Portfolio (Overview, Holdings, Orders), Performance (Returns, Analysis), Market (Top stocks, Screener, Top stories, Watchlist, Heatmap, Earnings calendar, Forex) and Class (Rankings). Each number on their pages comes with a plain-English definition. On their Rankings page, students see the class standings, with names. For a walkthrough you can share with your class, see Investing Simulator: how to trade.
Following your class
In Classrooms > your class > Simulators, with Investing Simulator picked:
Class shows four tiles: Investing (who has started, and the class's total value), Beating their starting balance (who's up and who's losing money), Average student return and One stock, or mostly cash (students with little spread, or 80% or more in cash). Click See who on a tile for names. Below are Top of the class, ranked by total return, and class charts: Class return over time, Holdings by stock, Stocks and cash and What each stock contributed to the class.
Students shows one student at a time: portfolio value, total return, today's change, stocks held, their portfolio over time, holdings, what each stock has made or lost, and recent trades.
The classroom Rankings tab ranks students or groups by return or portfolio value, and has a Present mode for the projector. See Rankings and leaderboards, and for running a contest, Running an investing competition.
Grading the Investing Simulator
To grade it, create an assignment of the Simulator type and choose Investing simulator (see Creating an assignment). Its Gradebook column shows a suggested score for each student, which you accept or change. Students in a group get the same suggestion, and you can edit each one.
The suggestion blends effort and outcome, 50/50 unless you change the weighting. Effort rewards making trades (five trades is full credit) and spreading money across stocks (a portfolio spread like five equal positions is full credit). Outcome compares the student's return with the S&P 500 over the same time: matching the market, or any gain when the market fell, is full credit, breaking even is 60%, and it never drops below 40%, so a careful student isn't failed by a bad market. At the due date, the score is saved using the last market close before it. See Simulator scores in the Gradebook.
Tips
Settle the starting balance, groups and schedule before the first trade, then activate.
Run a practice day or week, then use Reset Simulation so everyone starts the real unit even.
Teach market orders first. Students who place limit or stop orders often wonder why nothing happened.
Read students' trade reasons with them. Their Orders page shows each reason next to the trade.
Use the One stock, or mostly cash tile to start a conversation about diversification, not to scold.
Common questions
Can I change the starting balance in the middle of a unit?
You can, but every student's cash shifts by the difference immediately. If you need a clean change, reset the simulation after changing it.
A student says their order didn't go through. Why?
The message tells them: the simulation is paused, trading is outside your schedule, they don't have enough cash or shares, or day trading is off. Orders also need a reason, under 200 characters.
Does a group get more money than a single student?
No. A group shares one portfolio with one starting balance, and gets one weekly deposit, not one per member.
Do weekly deposits count as gains?
Yes. A student's total gain is their portfolio value minus the starting balance, so deposits and interest raise it. If you're ranking students, keep deposits the same for everyone.
What happens to portfolios after the end date?
Students can't trade after your end date, but their holdings are still valued at current prices, so portfolio values keep moving with the market.