Not content just being a place for people to practice stock trading, Marketocracy is:
a research company whose mission is to find the best investors in the world and then track, analyze, and evaluate their trading activity.
When you sign up for your free account with Marketocracy, you’re given a limited budget and strict rules that you must follow. Unlike some other virtual stock markets, Marketocracy puts the user in a scenario in which they are managing a mutual fund. As such you must follow all of the rules that a regular mutual fund must follow.
Another really cool thing about Marketocracy is that they will occasionally run promotions in games where you agree to have your concept back to zero or perhaps set up a new account, and over the course of the promotion compete against other individuals who are also practice stock trading to see who can have the biggest returns and/or make the most money. Many times at the end of these promotions the winner will receive either some sort of cash prize or recognition.
One interesting aspect about Marketocracy is that along with being a place for people to practice stock trading, they also have a selection of mutual funds for investors to invest real money. It is said that in managing the real money mutual funds, the performance of the top individuals in the practice game is considered in their portfolios are used to determine the makeup of the actual Marketocracy mutual fund.
If this sounds interesting to you, feel free to check out the Marketocracy homepage or perhaps even sign up to run your own fund. A free membership is all that is needed, and although a premium membership is offered, they never really say what you would get for the money. It is stated, however, that the top investors may be awarded free premium membership based on their performance.