Learn algorithmic trading with paper money

Pick or write a rule for when to buy and sell, test it on history, and see whether the result was skill or luck. Because most beginners' backtests are luck.

Download for Windows Watch the tour

Free to use. No account, no API keys, no real money. About 22 MB.

A four-minute tour

Everything in the video is the real app, running on its built-in simulated stocks.

What you learn by using it

The app explains each idea in plain language, then lets you try it.

Ten short lessons

From "What is a stock?" to going live, each with a quiz and a Try it button that opens the app ready for the experiment.

Stop-loss and take-profit

Set both on an order, see them drawn on the chart, and watch them fire as the market moves one day at a time.

Price alerts

Ask to be told when a stock goes above or below a price. Alerts only notify; they never trade.

A scanner

Which stocks is a strategy signalling today? It only uses what has happened by the market date, so there is no peeking at the future.

Backtests with real metrics

Trading costs, realistic next-day fills, Sharpe, Sortino, drawdown, and a buy-and-hold comparison.

Is it luck or skill?

Monte Carlo reshuffles the trades thousands of times. The optimiser and walk-forward test catch settings that only fit the past.

Strategy Finder

Tries many settings on the early part of a stock's history, then checks the best of each on the part it never saw, next to simply holding the stock.

Portfolio test

Run one strategy across several stocks from one account, with the same risk limits and costs as the rest of the app.

Compare

Two to four stocks side by side, or all starting at 100, with correlation, volatility and drawdown.

Data quality

Catches what quietly fools a backtest: a price that halves because of an unadjusted split, or missing days.

Your own data

Import a daily-price CSV you downloaded yourself, or create practice stocks with a behaviour you choose.

A look inside

Screenshots of the app running on simulated stocks.

The Strategy Finder comparing training and unseen-period returns for five strategies on a practice stock — Strategy Finder: the same settings on the data they were tuned on, and on data they never saw (a practice stock with random prices).

The Home page with a paper portfolio and a practice checklist — Home: a paper portfolio of ₹1,00,000, a practice checklist and the guided course.

A candlestick chart with entry, stop-loss and take-profit lines — Trade: entry, stop-loss and take-profit drawn on the chart, tinted red and green.

The Scanner page listing stocks with a buy signal — Scanner: which stocks a strategy is signalling today.

Backtest results with an equity curve — Backtests: the equity curve against buy-and-hold, and every simulated trade.

A Monte Carlo spread of outcomes — Monte Carlo: how much of a result could have been luck.

The optimiser showing the winning settings did not hold up — Optimiser: a big drop from training to test is what overfitting looks like.

The Portfolio test showing one strategy run across four stocks from one account, against holding them equally — Portfolio test: one strategy across several stocks from one account, against holding them all equally (practice stocks).

The Compare page with three stocks all starting at 100 on one chart — Compare: stocks side by side, all starting at 100, with the first against the second below.

Install on Windows

There is no installer. You unzip a folder and double-click one file.

Download the zip from the latest release.
Right-click it and choose Extract All. Don't run it from inside the zip.
Open the new folder and double-click AlgoTradingLab.exe.
A black window opens and your browser opens the app. Leave the black window open while you use it. Close it to quit.

Windows may say "Windows protected your PC". That is SmartScreen, which warns about any program that is new or not signed with a paid code-signing certificate. This one is not signed. If you trust it, click More info, then Run anyway. The app only ever talks to your own computer: it has no account, no broker connection and no tracking.

To check that your download is the one that was published, compare its fingerprint with the one on the release page:

Get-FileHash .\AlgoTradingLab-*-windows.zip -Algorithm SHA256

Where your data lives: C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\AlgoTradingLab. Updating or deleting the app folder never touches your portfolio. To remove the app completely, delete the unzipped folder, and that data folder if you want your portfolio gone too.

Windows only for now.

Questions

Does it use real money?

No. Every trade is paper money. The app never places a real order and never connects to a broker.

Do I need an account or an API key?

No. The Windows download works with simulated stocks and with price files you import yourself. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to enter.

Can I use real stock prices?

Yes, with a file. Download daily price history (date, open, high, low, close, volume) as a CSV from a source whose terms let you use it this way, then open Trade, Import data. The stock replays day by day on the app's market clock.

Is this investment advice?

No. It is an educational tool. Simulated results, and even backtests on real history, say little about what a strategy will do next. Nothing here tells you to buy or sell anything.

Is it connected to NSE, Upstox, Angel One or any other company?

No. It is an independent learning project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any exchange or broker.

How do I back up my data or move it to another computer?

Open Trade, Backup and press Download backup. You get one file with your whole portfolio, trades, strategies, saved backtests and price history. On the other computer, install the app and use Restore with that file. The Backup tab can also move your Learn progress, and the Trades, Positions and Backtests pages have Export CSV buttons for spreadsheets.

Does it send my data anywhere?

No. It runs on your own computer, listens only on your own machine, and keeps its data in the folder above.