152 Practice Investors Went From Collectively Ahead to Behind in Three Weeks, With Fake-Money Losses Near US$2.5 Million

Sep 15, 2026

StockEducation.com's AI game shows 152 practice investors swinging from profit to a US$2.5M simulated loss in three weeks, highlighting market volatility risks.

Sydney, Australia, September 15, 2026 -- StockEducation.com, the free investing education platform, today released six weeks of community results from PaperTrade, its AI-enhanced stock market game, showing in fake money the volatility lessons that usually cost new investors real savings.

Every player starts with US$1 million in virtual capital and trades real US stocks and ETFs against live market movements, so beginners can learn how markets, risk and investment decisions work before real money is on the line.

PaperTrade's 152 practice investors have more than US$71.2 million of virtual money in the market. As of 13 September 2026:

- The community swung from ahead to behind in three weeks. On 23 August the portfolios were collectively US$355,000 above their starting capital. By 13 September they were US$59,000 below it, a swing of more than US$400,000 driven purely by market movement.

- Portfolios in the red are down a combined US$2.5 million in simulated losses, more than 60% deeper than three weeks earlier. In real accounts, those losses could have been real savings.

- Nearly US$5 million now separates the winners from the losers. Winning portfolios are up a combined US$2.4 million, losing portfolios are down US$2.5 million, and the best performer is up 16.8%.

"Three weeks ago our community was collectively in profit. Today it is collectively underwater, and the gap between our winners and losers blew out by another one and a half million dollars. That is the market, not the players," said Felix La Spina, Publisher of StockEducation.com. "If those were real accounts, that swing is house deposits and retirement savings. On PaperTrade it costs nothing, and every player can see exactly what happened. You cannot buy that lesson; you can only practise it."

The outcomes echo research by finance professors Brad Barber and Terrance Odean documenting heavy losses among individual day traders.

PaperTrade is free at www.stockeducation.com in the browser, with live prices, real order types, an AI learning assistant, a Portfolio Health Score and a "You vs. the Index" scoreboard against the S&P 500.

Figures are from PaperTrade community analytics, 23 August and 13 September 2026. PaperTrade is an educational simulation; no real money is used or at risk. StockEducation.com does not provide financial, investment or tax advice.

For more information about StockEduction, use the contact details below.

Contact Info:
Name: Felix La Spina
Email: Send Email
Organization: StockEduction
Address: Suite 2, Level 3, 7-15 Macquarie Place, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
Website: http://StockEducation.com

Release ID: 89203394

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