Options Paper Trade

[RomanW]

Has anybody done options paper trading and what site or software would you recommend to a learner?

I am aware that strategies can take months to earn the rewards. However, can I paper trade without waiting months to see the results of my practise?

 

[Martinghoul]

I always recommend Excel.

 

[RomanW]

I always recommend Excel.

Could you use pre-existing stock charts to practise? Say I pick a day of a month last year on a stock. Without exposing the proceeding movement of the stock I can recreate the strikes and premiums using a pricing model calculated in Excel. From there I can plan my strategy then moments later as I expose the process of the stock I can see if my strategy would have worked.

Does this make sense?

 

[Martinghoul]

You can certainly try... It's a bit more complicated than that, because there are some "fudge" factors you need to make arbitrary assumptions about.

 

[RomanW]

there are some "fudge" factors you need to make arbitrary assumptions about.

I thought that might be the case. Is there a software program that provides this type of practise that can fill in the "fudges"? I think it's called backtesting but I haven't quite found a solid definition yet.

 

[Martinghoul]

I thought that might be the case. Is there a software program that provides this type of practise that can fill in the "fudges"? I think it's called backtesting but I haven't quite found a solid definition yet.

I don't know of any software that does this.