A lot of people wonder where they can find a trading contest that fits their interests as a trader. The easy answer: almost anywhere. Trading contests are extremely popular right now, and because more people have access to online trading accounts than ever before, there is more of a demand for this now, too.

There is no denying our love of competition. This is why there are professional sports. This is why we watch cooking competitions on television. This is why reality TV shows like Survivor and others are so popular. Competitions bring out a different side of people, pushing them to be better than they were before. The same applies to our trading. It’s very easy to be complacent in how we are performing on our own, but when we place our skills up against those of others, a whole new element of our ability comes out. We are driven to improve ourselves, and we are given a firm measure of where everyone else stands in comparison to us.

Online trading contests first took the form of promotional efforts to help promote stockbrokers. For example, a large news company would promote their $100,000 grand prize contest. You would get $50,000 in a demo account, and whoever was able to grow that money the most would win the big prize. Everyone who signed up for the contest would automatically be enrolled in their newsletters, they would get promotional items from other companies, and stockbrokers that had any loose affiliations with the news company would start sending you advertising material about their services.

This type of trading contest is still used today in various forms, but others have taken shape. With the rise in popularity of Forex and binary options trading, different types of contests have emerged in these arenas, as well. There are plenty of opportunities in all of these types of trading methods for you to test your skills out on. They come in a large variety of forms, and there is likely something out there for you regardless of where you trade, which assets you focus on, and how much experience you have. The internet has made the world so much smaller in many ways, and this is easily apparent in the world of financial trading. No longer are we in our own worlds, focusing on just growing our own money, but we have an outlet where we can see what others are doing, learn from it, and grow our own ability thanks to the opportunity of being able to do so.

Are Trading Contests for Everyone?

Certainly not! Trading contests are great for some, but for others they can lead to undue risk. This is especially true in certain kinds of tournaments. For example, if you are in a trading contest where you are being ranked by the volume that you can create off of a small amount of money, then only the most experienced traders should try to compete here. Others will find that they simply are losing money doing so.

Or, if you are a beginning trader and you need to pay an entry fee to compete in a demo trading tournament, then although you aren’t risking money in your actual trades, your entrance fee is likely to be a waste, depending on the competition you face. Some people might see this as an expense to help speed up the education process, but it’s usually not a necessary one.

There are a whole lot of other situations where contests are not right. The important thing is to know what you’re looking for out of a tournament, and then decide if that tournament and any costs that might accrue as a result are worthwhile to you.