How to Practice Trading with an App - TradingGYM

I was looking for an app that helps you practice trading, something that would replay historical candles and let me trade on them at a point in time, kind of like a trading simulator, but I couldn't find anything that suited my needs.

I asked the trading community for existing solutions, and there were some suggestions:

1. Most of them were some form of paper-trading, which is not at all what I was looking for, because it has a very slow feedback loop (make a trade, wait for hours/days).
2. Most notable was TD Ameritrade On-Demand feature, and then some smaller apps, but I wanted something that's super easy/quick to start with and use.

I wanted something that combines all the things that I'm looking for:

1. Quick start in seconds - no download, install, registration, etc.
2. Easy to use UI/UX.
3. Minimal lookahead bias - accomplished by using random asset/time without knowing which.
4. Make trades and fast forward time for a super quick feedback/learning loop.

So, I created TradingGYM. It's an early version, but I wanted to get the MVP out ASAP and see if this is useful to other traders as well.

The app is simple, and you can get started in seconds. Just open the app, and you see a chart with a random asset at a random point in time, and you know neither one of them. You can choose to reveal them in the settings if you want.

The goal is to make a profit (and learn) by making trades and fast-forwarding time to see how it played out, making your feedback and learning loop many times faster. No more waiting hours or days to see how the trade played out.

The mobile version has a minimal UI, so if you are looking for more settings (like candle size), make sure to check out the app on the desktop web.

For now, all the assets included are Crypto, since I already had the data, and that's the asset class I'm most familiar with.

Some will argue that you only really learn in live trading with real money, where emotions are included, etc. And yes, I agree that the psychological factor is a big part of the game. But multiple components contribute to success in trading.

While some can only be trained with real stakes (psychology, emotions), some can be practiced quite well in isolation, like pattern recognition. This app focuses on the latter.

Tech stack for the Devs: Node/React (in TypeScript). Postgres DB. Hosted with Vercel (previously Zeit/Now). ECharts for charting.

You are very welcome to join the TradingGYM Discord Community. We are in the early stages of development, so you have a high chance to impact the way this app goes with some feature requests and feedback.

Super interested to see if this helps anyone improve their performance and skills. Thanks and good luck with your trading!

Also published at https://medium.com/@deandree/i-created-an-app-that-helps-you-practice-trading-tradinggym-b776794fbba8