Our rating: 4.2 / 5. TradingSim is the most complete market replay simulator we cover: full synchronized sessions, tick data, and practice that runs on your schedule instead of the market’s. The billing terms are the strictest part of the product, so go in with a calendar reminder set.
Best for: traders drilling intraday setups on nights and weekends with real historical data.
NOT for: anyone who wants free practice or real-time paper trading inside a broker account.
Price: Pro at $79/month or $396/year; Premium at $89/month or $449/year, adding Level 2, five years of history, tick and second charts, and delayed live sessions. Both plans carry a 7-day free trial.
Pros
- Synchronized full-session replay, including premarket and postmarket data
- Tick data for 10,000+ US stocks, plus futures and crypto
Cons
- No refunds on any plan, monthly or annual
- Live trading mode is delayed 15 minutes
What TradingSim is
TradingSim is a web-based market replay simulator run by mysmp, llc. It is not a broker and not a paper trading mode bolted onto one. You pick any session from the historical archive, press play, and trade it as if it were live: charts, Level 2, time and sales, the scanner, and your watchlists all move together in sync. Pause it, slow it down, fast forward through the chop, jump straight to 9:28 and watch the open unfold again.
That session-based synchronization is the core difference from watching a single chart replay. When you replay a full session, the gapper you’re trading moves while the SPY chart next to it moves, while the scanner repopulates, while the tape prints. You’re practicing the whole job, not one chart in isolation.
Simulators are the practice stage of our day trading software guide, and this one exists for a specific reader: the person with a day job who can’t watch the open live, or the active trader who wants to re-run a setup twenty times until the entry is automatic. Everything runs in the browser. No download, no brokerage account, no data subscription on the side.
Replay engine and market data
The replay archive covers more than 10,000 US equities across Nasdaq, NYSE, and AMEX, with tick-by-tick data. Pro accounts get two years of history; Premium extends that to five. Premarket and postmarket data are included in the replay, which matters more than it sounds: most gap-and-go setups are built or broken before 9:30, and a simulator that starts at the opening bell can’t teach you that window.
Beyond stocks, the archive includes futures (minis and micros across indices, commodities, currencies, and rates, including ES, NQ, gold, crude, and 10-year notes) and major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. One subscription, all the data. There is no separate exchange data fee, which is worth naming because data fees are how most platform bills quietly double.
Playback controls are the everyday workhorse: multiple fast-forward speeds, small-increment stepping, and jump-to-time. Bookmarks let you mark a moment (a breakout, a failed reclaim, a halt) and return to it instantly, then organize those moments into a library by setup or market condition. If you drill one strategy, that library becomes your personal film room.
Order execution and trading tools
You trade the replay with real order mechanics: market, limit, stop, bracket (OCO), and OTO orders that place profit and stop targets the moment you enter. Hotkeys are customizable, and you can place and adjust orders directly on the chart. Fills are matched against the recorded Level 1 quote data from the actual session, so you can’t fantasy-fill yourself through the spread.
One honest caveat that applies to every replay simulator, this one included: the data is historical, so your simulated order never moves the market. On a thick name that’s irrelevant. On a thin low-float stock where your size would have been a real chunk of the bid, sim fills will flatter you. Treat replay as setup recognition and execution drills, not as proof your edge survives real liquidity.
Charting comes with 50+ technical indicators and 60+ drawing tools, multi-chart layouts (up to four charts, multiple timeframes, all synced to replay time), and drag-and-drop workspaces you can save per strategy. You can also set your account balance to whatever you want and hold as many positions as the balance allows, which makes position-sizing drills realistic instead of arbitrary.
Scanner, Level 2, and time and sales
The built-in market scanner filters the replayed session by premarket volume, float and market cap, premarket gap percentage, and short interest. Because it runs against the historical session, you can practice the full premarket routine: build the watchlist at 8:00, rank the gappers, then trade the open you just prepared for. Market movers lists refresh through the replayed day, so you can see what was in play at 11:00 on a session from two years ago.
Level 2 replay is a Premium feature. It shows historical market depth in sync with everything else, plus key levels (intraday and premarket highs and lows, limit up/down bands) and live-updating VWAP, ATR, and RVOL. Time and sales highlights block trades and dark pool prints. For tape readers, being able to pause and rewind the tape is the single best argument for replay over live paper trading: the tape doesn’t wait for you in real time, but here it does.
Premium also includes a delayed live mode that streams current market sessions on a 15-minute delay. It’s a useful warm-up tool, but be clear about what it is: delayed simulation, not real-time paper trading. If you need real-time fills against a live book, a broker paper account does that for free, and we compare those in our paper trading apps roundup.
Pricing, plans, and the billing terms you should actually read
Verified against the official pricing and trial pages in June 2026:
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | What it includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pro | $79/month | $396/year (about $33/month) | Full replay engine, equities + futures + crypto, scanner, watchlists, workspaces, hotkeys, analytics, 2 years of history |
| Premium | $89/month | $449/year (about $37/month) | Everything in Pro, plus Level 2, time and second charts, 5 years of history, 15-minute delayed live sessions |
The annual math: Pro at $79/month runs $948 a year; the annual plan is $396, a saving of $552. Premium month-to-month is $1,068 a year against $449 annual. If you’re staying past month five, annual wins decisively.
The tier decision is simpler than it looks. On annual billing, Premium costs $53 more per year than Pro. If you read the tape, trade off Level 2, or want second charts for scalp entries, that $53 is the cheapest upgrade in this product category. If you trade off 1-minute and 5-minute candles and never open the depth window, Pro is the complete product and the extra history won’t change your practice.
Now the part nobody else covers. Per the official terms and conditions, TradingSim offers no refunds on any purchase, monthly or annual, and subscriptions auto-renew on your payment method until you cancel. The 7-day free trial converts to a full charge the moment it expires. For context on where the category stands: monthly plans are non-refundable across this entire software category, but annual refund windows vary, and TradingView’s policy, verified the same week, gives 14 calendar days on annual plans. TradingSim sits at the strict end of that range, at zero, alongside Trade Ideas.
The protection play, in order: start on monthly until you know the platform fits your routine, then switch to annual for the discount. Set a renewal reminder a week before the anniversary, because a forgotten $449 renewal has no undo button here. The terms also state that cancellation takes effect immediately and service ends on the cancellation effective date, so cancel near the end of your billing cycle, not the day after a renewal, and keep the written confirmation (cancellation runs through the account dashboard or support@tradingsim.com). Payments process through PayPal or authorize.net, with Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover accepted.
Learning curve and support
The platform itself is easy to start: it runs in a browser, layouts are drag-and-drop, and the trial gives you a full week to find out whether the replay workflow clicks. The real learning curve isn’t the software, it’s building a practice routine that transfers. Replaying random days at 4x speed feels productive and teaches almost nothing; replaying the same setup class across thirty sessions with a trading journal open is where the tool earns its fee.
Support and cancellation requests route through support@tradingsim.com or the account dashboard. On the education side the company ships a lot for free: a deep blog covering setups, indicators, and market structure, plus the SimCast interview podcast. None of it is gated behind the subscription.
Who should buy it, and who shouldn’t
Buy it if you’re committed to a structured practice block and can’t (or shouldn’t) do it live. The classic profiles: the 9-to-5 worker building skills for a future transition, the trader in a slump who needs reps without bleeding capital, and the tape reader who wants to rewind the order flow. For all three, $396 a year is cheap against the alternative tuition. Most day traders lose money, and a large share of those losses are paid while learning lessons a simulator teaches for a flat fee.
Skip it if you’re testing whether trading interests you at all; a free broker paper account answers that question at zero cost. Skip it if your strategy depends on real-time data, because the live mode here is delayed 15 minutes by design. And skip the annual plan, at least at first, if there’s any chance you’ll practice for three weeks and drift, because the no-refund policy makes drift expensive.
Alternatives
Broker paper modes are the free alternative: real-time data, live market conditions, no replay, no rewind. TradeStation’s simulator is the strongest of those, and we break it down in our TradeStation review. The broader field, including dedicated replay tools and game-style trainers, is ranked in our day trading simulators comparison. The honest framing: replay tools and live paper trading aren’t substitutes, they’re different drills. Replay compresses time and repeats setups; live paper trading tests you against the clock. Serious learners usually end up using both.
Verdict
Scored per our rating methodology, where a simulator’s core capability is replay fidelity and data depth:
- Core capability: 4.5. Synchronized full-session replay with premarket data, tick-level history, Level 2 and tape replay, and three asset classes. The one real trade-off is that live mode is delayed, which is a boundary of the replay category itself.
- Value: 4.0. For the intended user (a committed practicer), $396 a year with all data included beats assembling a platform plus exchange data fees, and the free alternatives can’t rewind.
- Ease of use: 4.0. Browser-based, no install, drag-and-drop workspaces, hotkeys. A week of trial is enough to be functional.
- Trust & transparency: 3.5. The terms are published plainly and cancellation is simple, but a zero-day refund window on a $449 annual plan sits below the 14-day annual norm that TradingView sets.
- Support & education: 3.5. Email-routed support per the published terms, paired with a genuinely deep free education library and podcast.
Weighted overall: 4.2 / 5. Excellent with real trade-offs: the deepest practice environment in the category, sold on terms that put all the renewal risk on you. Take the trial, build a routine, and if it sticks, take the annual discount with a reminder set. Then see how it stacks against the rest of the best day trading simulators, and log every sim session in the free journal template; replayed trades you don’t review are just screen time.
FAQ
Is TradingSim worth it?
Worth it if you’ll actually run a practice routine: at $396 a year for Pro, twenty focused replay sessions a month prices each one under $2. A waste if you’d log in twice and forget about it, because no refund is coming when you do.
Does TradingSim have a free trial?
Yes, 7 days on either plan. It converts to a full paid subscription automatically the day it expires, so set a reminder for day six if you’re undecided.
How do you cancel TradingSim?
Through the account dashboard or by emailing support@tradingsim.com. Per the published terms, cancellation takes effect immediately and there are no refunds on amounts already paid, so time the cancellation near the end of your billing cycle and keep the confirmation.
Does TradingSim include Level 2 data?
On the Premium plan, yes: historical market depth replays in sync with the charts and tape, alongside VWAP, ATR, and RVOL readouts. The Pro plan does not include Level 2.
Can you trade live markets on TradingSim?
Not in real time. Premium streams current sessions on a 15-minute delay, and no orders ever reach a real market; it is a simulator, not a broker. For real-time practice, use a broker’s paper trading mode.