Q. How does paper trading work?
A. In short – quite similar to how trading on a real-life brokerage works, except it is virtual money provided by the system. Here is how:
- Your accounts start with a virtual margin balance of INR 10L.
- You submit a trade on a particular instrument with quantity, target, stop loss, entry price (optional), timeframe, buy/sell specified.
- The amount required for the trade is deducted from your margin balance.
- FrontPage tracks the market price for the instrument. Once the trade meets target or hits stop loss or the timeframe expires or you exit, the P&L is calculated based on the LTP and added back to your margin balance.
Q. How is my total portfolio value calculated?
A. Total portfolio value is the sum of:
- Your unused margin (which includes P&L from your exited trades)
- Margin used towards inactive (waiting to enter) trades
- The market value of your active trades
So, in the beginning, your total portfolio value is only the initial margin (10L). As you place trades this value may go up or down depending on the performance of your trades.
Q. What kinds of instruments are currently tracked?
A. FrontPage currently tracks cash, futures & options traded on NSE/NFO listed equities & MCX listed commodities. If you have a suggestion for a certain type of asset that you want to be tracked, please do contact @frontpagesupport.
Q. What can I do with a trade once posted?
A. The following options are available via the update trade button in the trade cards:
- Modify Entry Price: If you do use an entry price for your trade, and the trade hasn’t ‘entered’ or isn’t active yet, you can modify the entry price to LTP or any other price.
- Exit: You can exit a trade at any point after it is submitted. The P&L of the trade will be calculated using the LTP at the time of exit. You can use this option if you want to book your profits or losses earlier than the target or stop loss.
- Extend Target: If you believe that your trade can run more for higher targets, you can use this option. e.g. from 110 to 115. Note: you can’t reduce the target.
- Trail Stoploss: You can use this option to trail your stop loss to secure profit. Note: you can’t reduce the stop loss.
- Extend Timeframe: You can increase the timeframe of a trade at any point. Note: For now, P&L will only be calculated once a trade exit or breaches the target or stop loss.
Q. What happens to a trade that does not “enter” i.e. entry price is not crossed?
A. Entry price is optional. If you do not specify an entry price, the trade becomes active immediately on submission at LTP. If you do give an entry price, a trade does not become active unless the entry price is reached at some later point.