§24 SIMULATOR¶
OVERVIEW¶
The Simulator is a paper-trading desk built to feel like the real one. The page is a four-zone terminal: a Scanner on the left, a resizable chart in the center, a Level 2 montage stacked over time & sales on the right, and a tabbed blotter (Positions, Orders, My Trades, Options, Review, AI Journal, Analytics) across the bottom. The order ticket lives inside the montage panel, right next to the book you are reading. Free gives you a $25,000 paper account, market orders, and the full charting toolset — all 83 indicators and every drawing tool, the exact same engine as the main Charts page. Every fill runs through an execution-realism model that is always on. Practice the days that actually mattered with Market Replay, trade them with scalper hotkeys, and let each closed trade auto-log into your Trading Journal with its R-multiple so the practice-then-review loop closes itself.
Every fill runs through an execution-realism model that is always on. Two simulators share one cash balance: the equity sim (stocks, long and short) and the options sim (calls and puts, with assignment and expiration mechanics).
Note
See also the public overview at paper-trading-simulator and the fill-model write-up at methodology/sim-fills.
WHAT IT IS¶
A realistic paper-trading environment, not a frictionless backtest. You start with a paper balance, place orders against the live tape (or a replayed past session), and watch positions and P&L update tick-by-tick — but every order pays the costs a real one would. The realism layer is on by default at every tier and covers the spread you cross, slippage scaled off real traded volume, SEC and FINRA TAF fees plus any commissions you configure, gap-slippage on stops, short-borrow carry, the SSR uptick rule, trading-halt blocks, and buying power that obeys real margin math.
Two simulators share one cash balance: the equity sim (stocks, long and short) and the options sim (calls and puts, with assignment and expiration mechanics). Closing an equity position writes a row to your trade history, stamps its R-multiple, and — if you are signed in — bridges it straight into your journal.
WHEN TO USE IT¶
Before you size up a setup you have never traded live. To rehearse order-entry, stop placement, and bracketing until they are muscle memory. To replay a specific session — an earnings gap, a halt-and-resume, a trend day — and trade it forward bar by bar without waiting for it to happen again. And to run a real practice loop: take the trade, close it, let it land in your journal with its R-multiple, then review which setups actually make money in the Review tab.
OPEN IT AND SET YOUR BALANCE¶
Path: /simulator
Shortcut: ⌘6 — or open it from the §TRADE group at the top of the sidebar (next to the Journal). You can also jump straight in from a free practice prompt on the Dashboard, Charts toolbar, and Scanner toolbar.
On first visit a setup modal asks for a starting balance. Pick a preset ($5K / $10K / $25K / $50K / $100K) or type a custom amount (minimum $100). The default is $25,000. The choice persists to your browser; signed-in users also get a server-backed portfolio so positions survive a reload and re-login.
The top bar shows live account stats: Cash, Equity, Day P&L (with %), BP Avail (buying power), and a Trades counter. A green Synced pill appears when your portfolio is backed by the server. The Reset button wipes positions, orders, and history and lets you choose a fresh balance (your realism settings are preserved across a reset).
FEATURES¶
Blotter Tabs¶
| Tab | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Positions | Open equity and options positions |
| Orders | Pending and working orders |
| My Trades | Filled trade history |
| Options | Options-specific position detail |
| Review | Setup performance analysis |
| AI Journal | Auto-generated trade notes |
| Analytics | Aggregate performance metrics |
The Orders tab is the working-orders blotter — every pending order with a sticky pinned header: Symbol, Type, Side, Shares, Details, Status, and a cancel control. The tab label shows the live pending count.
Inline editing. Any order with zero filled shares can be edited in place — click the pencil-cell to change shares, limit price, stop price, target price, or trail amount/percent. Edits save to your account instantly. Once a partial fill lands, the fields lock down (cancel-and-recreate is the only safe path for a partially-filled order). Status chips. Pending (amber), Queued (purple, with a queue-ahead share count for non-marketable limits), and Partial N% (green, with the filled/total share split and a running average fill price). OCO/bracket legs are tinted so you can see which orders are linked; when one leg fills or the position goes flat, its siblings auto-cancel.
Charting¶
The Simulator uses the exact same charting engine as the main Charts page: all 83 indicators and every drawing tool are available at every tier, including Free.
Execution-Realism Model¶
The realism layer is on by default at every tier and cannot be disabled. It covers:
- Spread crossing
- Slippage scaled off real traded volume
- SEC and FINRA TAF fees
- Configurable commissions
- Gap-slippage on stops
- Short-borrow carry
- SSR uptick rule enforcement
- Trading-halt blocks
- Buying power calculated on real margin math
Market Replay¶
Practice specific historical sessions — earnings gaps, halt-and-resume events, trend days — and trade them forward bar by bar without waiting for them to recur.
Once selected you can platy with diffrent speed
DRIFT¶
CSV¶
SETTINGS¶
Realism settings
Tune how closely the sim mirrors a real broker. Changes save instantly.
¶
CASH¶
Margin gets 4× intraday buying power (min $2k equity) and can short. Cash is 1× and can't short. Commission / share ($)
Flat per-share commission on every fill. Default 0 (retail equities are commission-free). Commission / trade ($)
Flat per-fill commission. Default 0. SEC + TAF fees
Apply regulatory fees on sells (SEC §31 + FINRA TAF). Tiny but real. Enforce legacy PDT rule
Off by default — the $25k PDT rule was eliminated 2026-06-04 (FINRA Rule 4210). Enable to simulate the old rule: block the 4th day-trade in a rolling 5 business days when equity < $25k (margin only).
Note: the PDT rule only applies to margin accounts, it has no effect on a cash account.
MARGIN¶
Margin gets 4× intraday buying power (min $2k equity) and can short. Cash is 1× and can't short. Commission / share ($)
Flat per-share commission on every fill. Default 0 (retail equities are commission-free). Commission / trade ($)
Flat per-fill commission. Default 0. SEC + TAF fees
Apply regulatory fees on sells (SEC §31 + FINRA TAF). Tiny but real. Enforce legacy PDT rule
Off by default — the $25k PDT rule was eliminated 2026-06-04 (FINRA Rule 4210). Enable to simulate the old rule: block the 4th day-trade in a rolling 5 business days when equity < $25k (margin only).
Reset¶
Reset paper trading account?
Clears all positions, orders, and history. Your alerts and chart drawings are kept. Choose a new starting balance:
WRAP¶
¶
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS¶
Scalper hotkeys The simulator registers global scalper hotkeys (ignored while you're typing in a field or a modal owns the keyboard; plain or Shift only — Ctrl/Cmd/Alt combos pass through to the browser):
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| B | Buy market (open/extend a long). |
| S | Sell / Short market Sell or Short, smartly: if you're long it sells (clamped to your held size); otherwise it opens/extends a short. |
| C | Cover market (never more than the open short). |
| F | Flatten symbol Flatten the selected symbol's position. |
| SHIFT+F | Flatten ALL positions Flatten all open positions (every long and short). |
| Escape | Cancel all orders Esc (or Shift+C) — Cancel all pending orders. |
| + | Increase size Increase order size by the step (default 100). - — Decrease (floored at one step). |
| - | Decrease size — Decrease (floored at one step). |
| [ | Scale out (½) close half the selected position. ] — Scale in: add half of your order size (buy if long/flat, add to the short if short). |
| ] | Scale in (½) close half the selected position. ] — Scale in: add half of your order size (buy if long/flat, add to the short if short). |
| PRESS [?] OR [ESC] | TO DISMISS |
Trading Journal Integration¶
Every closed trade auto-logs into your Trading Journal with its R-multiple, closing the practice-then-review loop automatically.
Tip
Use the Review tab to identify which setups are actually profitable across your paper-trading history.
LADDER¶
Price ladder view
L2¶
L2 bid ask view
Ticket¶
HOW FILLS WORK
LIMIT (maker)¶
Fills when price trades through your limit AND the queue ahead of you has been consumed. You pay no spread.
MARKET (taker)¶
Walks the book level by level, paying the spread and progressively worse prices as your size eats depth. Impact caps at ~1% per side.
THIN NAME¶
On sub-$1 or low-volume names your size is capped and you are warned — real fills would partial, not fill clean. Deterministic training model. Real fills depend on live queue priority and hidden liquidity; verify on Monday's tape.
SCAN menu lists¶
Choose scanner feed
This comprehensive reference document details the complete structure of stock scanner presets as shown in the platform menus. It serves as a structural framework and technical blueprint for day traders, quantitative analysts, and systems engineers looking to replicate or study market scanning mechanics across various trading environments.
The table below organizes all the custom scanner presets extracted from the interface layout screenshots, categorized by trading style and primary technical metrics.
| Category | Scanner Preset Name | Primary Focus / Strategy | Market Phase |
|---|---|---|---|
| MOMENTUM & GAPPERS | MOMENTUM NOW | Real-time high-velocity momentum spikes | Regular Session |
| PRE-MARKET GAP UP | Significant overnight upward price gaps | Pre-Market | |
| PRE-MARKET RUNNERS | Sustained early morning upward momentum | Pre-Market | |
| PRE-MARKET GAP DOWN | Short-side / short-covering gap setups | Pre-Market | |
| TOP GAINERS | Highest percentage gainers on the day | Regular Session | |
| TOP LOSERS | Steepest percentage decliners on the day | Regular Session | |
| HOD MOMENTUM | Tickers breaking/testing high of day | Regular Session | |
| MORNING MOMENTUM | Fast moves during the opening market hours | Regular Session | |
| RUNNING UP | Consecutive short-term breakout candles | Regular Session | |
| POWER HOUR SURGE | Volume and trend velocity in final hour | Regular Session | |
| FLOAT ROTATION | High volume relative to available share float | Regular Session | |
| GAP & GO | Opening gap-up with immediate follow-through | Regular Session | |
| BEARISH & SHORTS | HOD BREAKDOWN | Failure at highs and breakdown of support | Regular Session |
| HIGH SHORT INTEREST | Heavy institutional shorting/squeeze potential | Multi-Timeframe | |
| GAP DOWN | Lower openings for short continuation | Regular Session | |
| UNUSUAL VOLUME LOSERS | High relative volume on downward trends | Regular Session | |
| VOLUME-BASED | UNUSUAL VOLUME | Volume significantly above historical average | Regular Session |
| VOLUME SPIKE (5MIN) | Extreme sudden volume surge on a 5M chart | Regular Session | |
| HIGH VOLUME BREAKOUT | Clear price breakout backed by heavy buying | Regular Session | |
| MOST ACTIVE | Total share volume leaders across the market | Regular Session | |
| RELATIVE VOLUME | Volume compared against same time of day | Regular Session | |
| PRICE ACTION & TECHNICALS | NEAR 52-WEEK HIGH | Long-term macro breakout/extension candidates | Multi-Timeframe |
| NEAR 52-WEEK LOW | Macro breakdown or bottom-fishing setups | Multi-Timeframe | |
| OVERSOLD (RSI < 30) | Mean reversion long candidates | Multi-Timeframe | |
| OVERBOUGHT (RSI > 70) | Mean reversion short candidates | Multi-Timeframe | |
| ABOVE VWAP | Intraday bullish trend alignment | Regular Session | |
| TYPICAL-PRICE RECLAIM | Intraday shift and recovery above typical price benchmark | Regular Session | |
| REVERSAL CANDIDATES | Trend exhaustions and candlestick turns | Regular Session | |
| OPENING RANGE BREAKOUT | Clear break of early range boundaries | Regular Session | |
| RED-TO-GREEN REVERSAL | Intraday recovery turning positive on day | Regular Session | |
| MARKET CAP SPECIFIC | LARGE CAP MOVERS | Liquidity and momentum in large corporations | Regular Session |
| MID CAP MOVERS | Balanced volatility in medium-sized firms | Regular Session | |
| SMALL CAP ROCKETS | Highly explosive small-cap momentum plays | Regular Session | |
| PENNY STOCK MOVERS | Extreme percentage moves in low-priced stocks | Regular Session | |
| SUB-$1 RUNNERS | Low-priced micro-caps gaining market attention | Regular Session | |
| MICROCAP MOMENTUM | Rapid price acceleration in micro-cap market caps | Regular Session | |
| SPECIALTY SCANNERS | SECTOR MOMENTUM | Real-time tracking of hot industry groups | Regular Session |
| LOW FLOAT RUNNERS | High supply/demand imbalance velocity plays | Regular Session | |
| AFTER-HOURS MOVERS | Extended-hours corporate news & earnings plays | Post-Market | |
| BREAKING NEWS MOVERS | Catalyst-driven price action breakouts | Multi-Timeframe | |
| HIGH SHORT INTEREST SQUEEZE | Forced short liquidation momentum plays | Regular Session | |
| IPO WATCH | Recent listings and market debut tracking | Multi-Timeframe | |
| FORMER RUNNERS | Historical multi-day runners waking up again | Regular Session | |
| HALT RESUME | Volatility halt (LULD) and resumption tracking | Regular Session |
HOW TO USE¶
Setting Your Balance¶
On first visit a setup modal appears. Choose a preset or enter a custom amount.
| Option | Value |
|---|---|
| Presets | $5K, $10K, $25K, $50K, $100K |
| Custom minimum | $100 |
| Default | $25,000 |
The selection persists to your browser. Signed-in users also receive a server-backed portfolio so positions survive a reload.
Note
The Reset button wipes all positions, orders, and history and lets you choose a fresh balance. Your realism settings are preserved across resets.
Reading the Top Bar¶
| Stat | Description |
|---|---|
| Cash | Available cash balance |
| Equity | Total portfolio value |
| Day P&L | Intraday profit/loss with percentage |
| BP Avail | Current buying power |
| Trades | Count of closed trades today |
| Synced pill | Green indicator when portfolio is server-backed |
Placing a Trade¶
1. Select a symbol
Type a ticker in the top-bar search and press Enter, or click any scanner row. The order ticket reads "Select a ticker to trade" until a symbol is active.