• The idea of losing money in the stock market due to lack of knowledge terrifies financial novices enough to scare them away from investing entirely. Instead of avoiding the stock market, which can lucrative, learn the ins and outs of stock trading on a virtual stock market game. These games allow you to trade for free and teach you the skills necessary to be successful when you decide to involve actual money.
  
  

Virtual Stock Exchange

• Join a public trading game or create your own at Virtual Stock Exchange from Market Watch. There's a large collection of news and research tools, such as charting a stock's progress and examining in-depth financials, to help you make educated decisions. View real-time rankings and the portfolios of other people in your game. One of the best features of the game, according to a Forbes review, is that you can customize the rules for your own competition. Unfortunately, your portfolio is erased if you leave one game to join another.
  
  

Investopedia Simulator

• Play the stock market with $100,000 in virtual cash when you join Investopedia Simulator, a free stock market game. The simulator uses real data from stock markets to make the experience as close as possible to using a real online brokerage account. The game allows you to leave yourself tips on your stocks for future reference, as well as view tips that other people have left themselves. This gives you an opportunity to get insight into what other people think of particular company's stocks. The game is limited to U.S. and Canadian trading.
  
  

Marketocracy

• If $100,000 of fake money isn't enough, turn to Marketocracy, where you're made a virtual millionaire. The game, created by Firsthand Funds founder Ken Kam, requires a little bit of knowledge, as you must specify which investing strategy you plan to follow--section, growth or international--and actually stick to those goals. Forbes' review says the top virtual fund managers could be hired to be real fund managers, but there's no news or research to help out complete stock market novices.
  
  

Hollywood Stock Exchange

• Forbes' pick for the "best of the Web," the Hollywood Stock Exchange offers a twist on traditional stock trading games. Start with $2 million in the website's currency, Hollywood Dollars, and trade stocks and bonds of your favorite movies. You actually trade the actors or directors (by buying shares of them and their new movies) and try to predict the success of upcoming movies based on its gross sales or awards. If the movie fails, the actor's value falls. If it's a blockbuster, the value soars.