Learn
Sharemarket Game: What It Teaches, What It Can’t and Which to Play
A good game teaches sizing, patience and how news moves prices. It cannot teach real fear or real company research. How the main options in Australia stack up, fairly.
A sharemarket game teaches the habits behind sound investing: sizing positions, sitting through volatility and reading how news moves prices. It cannot teach real fear, real company research or what you would earn. In Australia the main options are the ASX Sharemarket Game, broker demo accounts and story-driven games such as WallThrone, and each is good at something different.
In short
- Games teach behaviour; they cannot teach real fear or forecast returns.
- The ASX Sharemarket Game uses real ASX shares and suits schools and first-timers.
- Broker demos teach one platform; story games teach decisions under pressure.
- Moneysmart and ASIC’s registers are the first stop before real money.
What can a sharemarket game teach you?
Mostly behaviour, the part books struggle with. A well-made game puts you where the right move is obvious on paper and hard in the moment.
- Position sizing. How much you put into one company matters as much as which company. A game shows quickly what a single oversized bet does to an account.
- Sitting through volatility. Watching a holding fall 15% in a week and doing nothing rash is a skill. You can only practise it by living through the fall.
- How news moves prices. Headlines move shares fast, and the first move is not always the one that lasts. This explainer on how news moves share prices goes deeper.
- Costs. Brokerage on every trade turns frequent trading into a slow leak.
- Record keeping. A diary of why you bought and sold is the cheapest teacher there is.
What a sharemarket game cannot teach
Being honest about the limits is what makes a game useful rather than misleading.
- Real fear. A 20% fall in play money is a number. The same fall in your savings is a feeling, and it changes decisions.
- Real research. Listed Australian companies publish results and announcements through the ASX. Reading them is a separate skill, and a game with fictional companies cannot teach it.
- Tax. Gains, losses and dividends have tax consequences that the ATO explains. No game covers them.
- Decades. Many Australians already own shares through their super fund, often without thinking about it. The patience super demands plays out over a working life, not a game session.
No game result predicts what you would earn with real money. A good month in a game proves you can follow rules in a game.
How WallThrone plays as a sharemarket game
It is a free game played in the browser, on desktop or mobile. Every player shares one market, the WSX, where fictional companies trade under tickers like ORDY, QNTS and PXFG. Prices come from the game’s own model rather than real quotes, move every five seconds and react to stories on Ticker TV. When big players buy, the price rises for everyone, so you are never alone on the chart.
You start with 25,000 dollars of play money, a Startup Office and two employees, then climb ranks by net worth: Known at 100,000 dollars, The Street at 1 million, Player at 10 million and so on, up to King at 10,000 million. Each rank unlocks something new. Underneath runs a story of betrayal by your former partner, Victor Morrow, told across 43 missions.
Candle Call: a test of discipline
Under the chart sits Candle Call. You call whether the next one-minute candle closes green or red and bet 1, 5 or 10% of your cash; a right call pays 1.9 times the bet, and streaks earn credits. With 20,000 dollars in cash, a 5% call is 1,000 dollars, and a right call pays 1,900. In real markets, one-minute moves are mostly noise, so treat it as a test of discipline rather than prediction: do you keep the bet at 1% after a loss, or reach for 10% to win it back?
Rules with teeth
The Commission, the game’s regulator, watches for illegal moves such as acting on tips from The Insider. Your Heat climbs from 0 towards 100, with a letter at 30, an inspector at 50, a raid at 70 and a trial at 90. In prison you cannot trade, and the market keeps moving without you.
Practise sitting still. Take 25,000 dollars of play money onto the WSX, cap your Candle Call bets at 1% and hold that rule for a week, whatever the last candle did.
Try it freeSharemarket game options in Australia compared
For many Australians, especially students, the ASX Sharemarket Game is the natural starting point: it lets you trade real ASX-listed shares with virtual cash over a set round, often as part of a class. Broker demo accounts and story games cover different ground.
| Option | Prices | Format | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASX Sharemarket Game | Real ASX prices | Set rounds with virtual cash, popular with schools | A structured first look at real ASX shares | It stops when the round ends |
| Broker demo account | Real or delayed prices | Open-ended practice on one platform | Learning a broker’s order screens | Some demos lead to leveraged products such as CFDs |
| WallThrone | Fictional companies, priced every five seconds | An always-on shared world with a story | Decisions under news, rivals and rules | No real companies; play money only |
| ASX and Moneysmart education | None | Free courses, guides and calculators | Concepts before any trade | No practice, so no pressure |
None of these replaces the others. A sensible route for many beginners is to read first, play a round with real prices, and use a story game for the habits only pressure builds.
How to get the most from any sharemarket game
- Write a sizing rule. For example, no more than 10% of the account in one company: 2,500 dollars on a 25,000 start.
- Treat costs as real. At 0.05% a trade, buying 8,000 dollars of shares costs 4 dollars. Cheap once; 400 dollars if you do it a hundred times.
- Keep a trade diary. One line each: why you bought, and what would make you sell.
- Decide your exits in advance. Write down what would make you sell before you buy, then stick to it when the price moves.
- Compare with a benchmark. At the end of a round, set your result against the market as a whole over the same period. Beating it once proves little; trailing it after many trades tells you something.
From a sharemarket game to real shares in Australia
When you move to real money, ASIC’s Moneysmart is the place to start: it covers shares, fees and scams in plain English. Before you open an account:
- Check that the broker holds an Australian financial services (AFS) licence on ASIC’s professional registers.
- Ask whether your shares will be held in your own name (CHESS-sponsored, with your own HIN) or by a custodian on your behalf.
- Read the full fee schedule, including brokerage, currency conversion for overseas shares and any account fees.
- Check Moneysmart’s list of companies you should not deal with, and be wary of anyone promising high returns with little risk.
Tax on gains and dividends is set out by the ATO, and your situation is your own; for personal advice, see a licensed adviser. If the basics are still hazy, start with how the sharemarket works.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best sharemarket game for beginners in Australia?
It depends on what you want to practise. For real ASX shares in a structured round, often with a class, the ASX Sharemarket Game is hard to beat. To learn a particular broker’s screens, use its demo. For habits under pressure in a market that never closes, a story game fits better. Many beginners get the most from combining two.
Does a sharemarket game use real share prices?
The ASX Sharemarket Game and most broker demos use real prices, sometimes delayed. Story games with fictional markets set their own prices instead. That rules out research into real companies, but it also means nobody can look up what happens next, and every player sees the same price at the same moment.
Can you win real money playing a sharemarket game?
Not in WallThrone: you trade play money and results stay in the game. Optional credit packs buy an in-game currency for hiring, moving headquarters and similar, nothing more. No genuine game should ask you to deposit money to trade for profits; that is a common scam pattern, and Moneysmart explains how to check a company.
How do I start buying shares in Australia?
Through a broker that holds an Australian financial services licence, which you can check on ASIC’s registers. Decide whether you want shares held in your own name or by a custodian, compare fees, and start with an amount you could afford to see fall. Moneysmart’s guides on shares walk through each step in plain English.
WallThrone is a game: the money is play money, the companies are fictional and it is not a broker. This article is general education, not financial advice.