Stock market simulation and strategy labs for higher education

Portfolio simulation for finance classes—from virtual portfolios to tested strategies.

Use Investfly as a stock market simulator for students and a complete applied-finance lab: research markets, form an investment thesis, manage virtual portfolios, design trading rules, backtest ideas, and observe them in forward simulation—while instructors organize classes or cohorts and review outcomes.

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  • Instructor-managed classes + cohorts
  • No-code and Python paths
  • Historical and forward simulation
Applied Finance Lab
ResearchScreen, chart, compare, and form a thesis
01
ConstructAllocate capital in a virtual portfolio
02
SystematizeExpress decisions as visual rules or Python
03
EvaluateBacktest assumptions and inspect outcomes
04
ObserveForward-test in a virtual account
05
LEARNING MODEEXPERIENTIAL
Virtual portfoliosPractice without real capital
Class labsTemplates or custom rules
No-code strategiesTurn a thesis into rules
Python strategiesFor quantitative coursework
Backtest + forward testCompare historical and observed behavior
Find your course

Built around the titles already in your catalog.

Choose the course family closest to your syllabus. Each guide maps recognizable course titles to learning outcomes, platform capabilities, and assignment ideas.

Investments & Security Analysis

Move from screening and investment theses to virtual positions and reviewable portfolio decisions.

Investments · Equity Analysis · Financial Markets

Portfolio Management & Asset Allocation

Compare allocation, rebalancing, constraints, and performance across independent virtual portfolios.

Portfolio Management · Asset Allocation · Investment Lab

Derivatives, Options & Futures

Explore user-defined structures, hedges, payoff decisions, and instrument-aware simulation.

Derivatives · Options Markets · Futures Markets

Algorithmic & Quantitative Trading

Build reproducible rules, challenge overfitting, and compare backtests with virtual forward tests.

Algorithmic Trading · Systematic Trading · Technical Analysis

Financial Engineering & Computational Finance

Translate quantitative models into bounded, inspectable portfolio and strategy experiments.

Financial Engineering · Quantitative Finance · Optimization

FinTech, Python & Financial Data Science

Connect data preparation and code to indicators, signals, strategies, APIs, and portfolio outcomes.

FinTech · Python for Finance · Financial Data Science

Risk Management & Behavioral Finance

Make risk policies explicit and compare discretionary choices with rules-based decisions.

Financial Risk · Behavioral Finance · International Markets

Personal Finance & Wealth Management

Turn diversification, policy, and long-horizon investing concepts into observable decisions.

Personal Finance · Individual Investing · Wealth Management
What students actually do

Run a stock market game for students—or grade the evidence behind every decision.

A ranked Trading Challenge can add the energy of a stock market game, but ranking is optional. Portfolio, Strategy, and custom labs can focus instead on process, constraints, evidence, and reflection.

Assignment anatomyprompt action evidence assessment
01 · Instructor

Set the decision problem

Choose the market, objective, benchmark, eligible instruments, constraints, dates, and evidence students must submit.

Course brief + rubric
02 · Student

Research and construct

Screen securities, examine charts or fundamentals, build a virtual portfolio, or express the thesis as visual or Python rules.

Criteria + thesis + positions
03 · Platform

Test and observe

Review hypothetical backtests, orders, holdings, trade history, portfolio behavior, and virtual forward results.

Rules + trades + outcomes
04 · Assessment

Explain and defend

Evaluate assumptions, distinguish process from performance, identify limitations, and document how evidence changed the decision.

Memo + critique + revision
Research evidenceScreening criteria, candidate set, charts, fundamentals, watchlists, and thesis rationale.
Decision evidenceAllocation, sizing, entry and exit rules, constraints, orders, positions, and trade history.
Evaluation evidenceBacktest assumptions, forward observations, limitations, revisions, and post-decision reflection.
Transparent academic pricing

Join the class first. Upgrade only when you are ready for Labs.

Instructor accounts are free. Students join the classroom before checkout, so Investfly can offer the academic Premium rate and enroll upgraded or institution-sponsored students in open Labs automatically.

InstructorsFree accounts
Join firstNo payment to enter class
Student PremiumMore than 50% off retail
Sponsored accessInstitution eligible
Educator access
FREEfor instructors

Create classes, invite students, configure labs, provision managed portfolios automatically, review progress and portfolio outcomes, and export class summaries.

  • No instructor subscription
  • Create and manage classrooms
  • Invite students before payment
Create FREE instructor account
Students pay
$29per month

After joining a classroom, students see one academic Premium upgrade. Checkout unlocks automatic enrollment and managed portfolios for every open Lab.

Student Premium$29/mo$69/mo
Billed monthly with no annual student charge. Students may cancel after the course or continue at the same academic rate.
Institution pays
Sponsoredinstitution-funded access

Institutions can sponsor student Lab access instead of requiring individual subscriptions. Sponsored students are treated as ready for automatic Lab enrollment.

Contact sales@investfly.com to discuss an institution-funded program.
01

Create the instructor account. No payment method is required for faculty access.

02

Students join the classroom. Their student role and academic upgrade become available immediately.

03

Upgrade or sponsor access. Investfly then enrolls the student and provisions every open Lab portfolio automatically.

Start your first class

From free instructor account to a running class.

Create the class yourself, invite students, and begin managing the cohort from the Instructor Dashboard—without a sales call or implementation project.

Invite from Investfly or your own email

Send tracked invitations from the classroom dashboard, or copy a complete invitation email with private join instructions for your normal course communications.

Create FREE instructor account
Class onboardingFive setup steps
Instructor students
  1. 01

    Create account

    Register as an instructor. The account is free and requires no sales call.

    Free instructor
  2. 02

    Invite students

    Email from the dashboard or share the class invitation link externally.

    Invite sent
  3. 03

    Student signup

    Students open the invitation and create a student account or sign in.

    Student account
  4. 04

    Accept invitation

    Students accept the invitation to join the instructor's class or cohort.

    Enrolled
  5. 05

    Manage the class

    Use the dashboard to create labs, monitor automatic portfolio provisioning, review progress, and export summaries.

    Class active
Instructor-controlled setup create invite sign up accept manage
The Instructor Dashboard

Operate the class without becoming the trading desk.

Keep course administration separate from student experimentation. Create a class once, then use Portfolio, Strategy, Trading Challenge, or custom labs to set the permitted activity. Active students are enrolled and receive dedicated lab portfolios automatically.

Explore as an instructor
  • Create and switch between multiple classes or course sections.
  • Invite students from Investfly or copy a complete external invitation email with private join details.
  • Start from Portfolio, Strategy, or Trading Challenge—or configure a custom lab with manual or strategy operation, allowed asset types, starting cash, schedule, and short-selling policy.
  • Students join the classroom once; upgraded or institution-sponsored students are enrolled in open Labs and receive an instructor-managed portfolio without another join step.
  • Choose unranked progress or total-return evaluation, control when class results are visible, and export equity, return, rank, trade count, and readiness.
Investfly Instructor Dashboard showing classroom enrollment, lab controls, managed student portfolios, invitations, and the student roster
Choose the right level of technical depth

Start with portfolios. Add rules or Python when the syllabus calls for it.

Every student does not need the same technical path. Select the environment that matches your prerequisites, learning objectives, and available class time.

No coding

Virtual portfolio lab

Best for introductory investments, security analysis, portfolio management, personal finance, and behavioral finance.

Prerequisite
Instructor-taught market and portfolio concepts
Students build
Watchlists, positions, allocations, orders, and decision journals
Evidence
Thesis, sizing rationale, trade history, and portfolio review
No-code logic

Visual strategy lab

Best for systematic investing, technical analysis, derivatives rules, risk controls, and an introduction to algorithmic trading.

Prerequisite
Entry, exit, sizing, indicator, and risk concepts taught in class
Students build
Security universes, conditions, schedules, sizing, and exit rules
Evidence
Strategy specification, backtest, limitations, and revision
Basic Python

Python strategy lab

Best for quantitative finance, financial engineering, FinTech, data science, econometrics, and advanced algorithmic trading.

Prerequisite
Course-defined Python and quantitative methods
Students build
Custom logic, indicators, callbacks, order plans, and model integrations
Evidence
Code, assumptions, logs, simulated trades, and implementation critique

These paths can be used independently. A course can stay entirely with manual virtual portfolios; programming and automated strategies are optional.

Markets and instruments

Start with a stock market simulator for students. Expand when the course requires it.

Stock market simulation is the clearest starting point for many finance classes. Use the same research, strategy, and portfolio vocabulary across supported asset classes while keeping instrument scope and permissions under instructor control.

Stocks & ETFs

Security analysis, screening, allocation, diversification, rebalancing, factor discussions, and portfolio policy.

Options

Contract selection, multi-leg structures, hedging, payoff logic, DTE and strike rules, exits, and lifecycle discussion.

Futures

Contract mechanics, ticks, directional rules, session timing, expiration-aware controls, and risk scenarios.

Forex

Currency pairs, pips, macro or technical theses, directional rules, and market-session timing.

Spot crypto

Digital-asset research, supported spot pairs, scheduled accumulation, basket allocation, and rebalancing exercises.

Asset, market-data, order, backtest, and account availability varies by instrument, provider, entitlement, jurisdiction, plan, and current platform support. Fixed income, real estate, commodities, and ESG topics may use listed securities or ETFs where appropriate; Investfly is not a bond-pricing, property-modeling, or institutional research terminal.

Institution-ready planning facts

Know the access, workflow, policy, and purchasing boundaries before the syllabus is final.

Use these facts for course planning and initial departmental review. They state what the current academic experience does—and what it does not claim to replace.

Student access

Individual accounts and invitation-based enrollment

Students receive the class invitation, create an account or sign in, accept the invitation, and join the class. Investfly accounts require users to be at least 18 years old.

Teaching stack

Use Investfly alongside the LMS

Investfly provides market, portfolio, strategy, simulation, and class-management tools. It does not claim native LMS or gradebook integration and is not the institution's academic system of record.

Review and export

Bring evidence back to your course workflow

Review enrollment readiness, dedicated lab portfolios, activity, optional return rankings, and supported CSV results in the Instructor Dashboard, then use those artifacts with your normal rubric and gradebook.

Privacy and policy

Review published policies before adoption

Investfly publishes its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, including account, content, usage, retention, safeguard, and deletion information. No unlisted certification or compliance claim is implied.

Procurement

Learner-paid or institution-sponsored access

Students can use the $29 monthly Student Premium plan, while institutions may sponsor Lab access. Instructor accounts remain free; contact Investfly to discuss an institution-funded program.

Continuity and support

Plan the end of the course too

Students may cancel after the course or retain the same academic rate indefinitely. Users should export content they need to retain; questions can be sent to support@investfly.com.

Need a formal vendor review?Start the free class while your department determines whether security, accessibility, contracting, or procurement review is required.
Create FREE instructor account
Also built for private trading education

Give every coaching cohort a place to practice the method.

Investfly is designed first for university finance programs. The same instructor-managed environment also supports serious trading schools, coaching businesses, bootcamps, and professional workshops teaching market research, portfolio construction, risk, or automated trading.

Create FREE instructor account
  1. 01

    Onboard the cohort

    Create an instructor-managed class, invite learners, and keep each intake organized in its own workspace.

  2. 02

    Teach the method

    Move from market research and discretionary decisions to explicit rules, visual strategies, or supported Python work.

  3. 03

    Practice safely

    Use virtual portfolios, historical backtests, and forward simulation without requiring learner capital.

  4. 04

    Review the evidence

    Inspect participation, portfolio outcomes, trade histories, and exportable summaries for focused coaching feedback.

Strong fits Trading academies Algorithmic coaching Options + futures training Investment bootcamps Professional workshops

Investfly supplies the simulation lab and instructor controls. Your organization owns its curriculum, coaching, learner support, and claims about outcomes.

Final planning questions

Confirm the boundaries before you launch.

Course fit, student work, pricing, onboarding, instructor controls, markets, and institutional planning are covered above. These are the remaining questions instructors commonly use to set expectations.

Is coding required?

No. Manual virtual portfolios and the visual strategy builder do not require Python. Use the Python SDK only for courses where programming is an intended learning outcome.

Can Investfly run a stock market game for classroom use?

Yes. The Trading Challenge template supports a total-return leaderboard, but competition is optional. Portfolio, Strategy, and custom labs can remain unranked and emphasize research evidence, rule design, backtests, forward observation, memos, and reflection.

What can an instructor control in a lab?

Current controls include manual or submitted-strategy operation, allowed asset types, equal starting cash, dates, short-selling policy, total-return or unranked evaluation, and class-result visibility. The portfolio UI exposes only supported actions while the backend enforces the same rules.

Do students join every lab separately?

No. Students join the classroom once. Creating a Lab enrolls upgraded and institution-sponsored students and prepares a dedicated portfolio for each account. Students who join later are added to open Labs after they upgrade or receive sponsored access. Strategy Labs still require each student to choose a strategy submission.

Are backtests and virtual portfolios predictive?

No. Backtests are hypothetical and virtual portfolios are simulations. They do not represent actual trading or predict future results. Data, instruments, fills, and other assumptions can differ from real markets.

What product limitations should be written into the assignment?

State that simulations are hypothetical and that available instruments, data, fills, packages, strategy features, and account behavior depend on current support. Course pages identify discipline-specific boundaries such as omitted taxes, unrestricted model training, or full fixed-income analytics.

Can private trading schools and coaching businesses use the same experience?

Yes. Private educators can organize learners into instructor-managed cohorts for research, virtual portfolio practice, strategy building, backtesting, and forward simulation. The training organization remains responsible for curriculum, learner support, and outcome claims.

Bring the market into the classroom or coaching cohort

Design a finance lab learners can research, test, and defend.

Create a free instructor account, run your first class at no cost, and decide later whether learners or your institution will fund continued access.

Create FREE instructor account Review academic pricing
Available data, instruments, strategy features, and class controls depend on current product and academic plan support.