The stock chart game: call the next candle
Get a random real chart from about 100 US stocks. Read 40 daily candles, then buy, sell or hold through the next 60 and see what your virtual $10,000 turns into.
How the stock game works
- Spend a chip to startEach round uses one chip. You can hold up to 10, and one refills every 15 minutes.
- Read the first 40 candlesA real daily chart opens with 40 candles already on screen, so you have context before your first call.
- Buy, sell or holdSet a size with the slider, then buy at the current close or sell shares you hold. Or do nothing and wait.
- Reveal the next candleStep forward one candle at a time, or turn on auto-play. There are 60 candles to play.
- See your resultAnything you still hold is sold at the final close. You see your return next to what simply holding the whole time would have made.
Which stocks are in the game
About 100 US-listed stocks across sectors: big tech (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta), banks and payments (JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Visa, PayPal), healthcare (Pfizer, Moderna, Eli Lilly), consumer brands (Coca-Cola, Nike, McDonald's, Costco), industrials and energy (Boeing, Caterpillar, ExxonMobil), EV makers (Tesla, Rivian, NIO), and meme-era names like GameStop and AMC.
That mix is on purpose. Calm large caps teach patience; volatile names teach you what a bad entry feels like.
What you are actually practicing
- Reading trend and support or resistance before you act, not after.
- Sizing: the slider decides how much of your cash goes into a trade, so one bad call does not end the round.
- Waiting. Holding cash is a decision, and often the right one.
- Honest review: the buy-and-hold comparison at the end shows whether your trading added anything.
Where the prices come from
Daily open, high, low, close and volume from January 2020 onward, adjusted for stock splits (Nvidia's 2024 split, for example, does not show up as a crash). Candles are drawn from the recorded values with nothing smoothed or invented.
Questions about the game
Is the stock data real?
Yes. Rounds use recorded daily prices for about 100 US stocks from 2020 onward. Each round starts at a random date, so you cannot look up or memorize the answer while playing.
Can I short a stock?
No. You can buy, sell shares you already hold, or wait. Shorting and leverage are not part of the game.
How is my result scored?
Your round return is your final balance compared with where you started the round. The game also shows the buy-and-hold return for the same 60 candles so you can see if your calls beat simply holding.
Does it cost anything?
No. The web game is free to play as a guest. A round uses a chip, and chips refill on their own.
More ways to play
One Candle Ahead is a practice game with virtual money on historical data. It is not investment advice, and past prices do not predict future results.