About Margin Call — Free Stock Market Trading Simulator

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ABOUT MARGIN CALL

Margin Call is a browser-based financial simulation terminal. It models a complete economy — stocks, bonds, options, crypto, central banking, politics, and corporate governance — running entirely in your browser.

No account required. No server. No data collection. Just you against the market.

CAPABILITIES
▸ Trade stocks, options, and bonds
▸ Trade 16 crypto assets
▸ Short sell and use margin
▸ Found and IPO your own company
▸ Launch corporate takeovers
▸ Navigate economic cycles
▸ Lobby politicians and influence policy
▸ Acquire lifestyle assets
▸ Trade on insider tips (at your peril)
▸ Manage regulatory heat from the SEC
SIMULATION FEATURES
108 companies across 12 sectors with quarterly earnings and bankruptcy risk
Macro economy — GDP, inflation, unemployment, Fed interest rate via Taylor Rule
Political system — elections, legislation, lobbying, corruption, and disasters
Options pricing — Black-Scholes with dynamic implied volatility from VIX
Bond market — yield curve, coupon payments, duration-weighted Fed shocks
Crypto ecosystem — BTC halvings, altseasons, exchange insolvency, DeFi yields
Lifestyle assets — sports teams, art, real estate, yachts, and vehicles
AI opponents — 8 archetypes with cycle-aware strategies competing against you
GARCH volatility — realistic volatility clustering and shared factor model
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
> What is Margin Call?
Margin Call is a free, browser-based stock market trading simulator. It features 108 companies across 12 sectors, a fully simulated macro economy with GDP, inflation, and Fed policy, plus options, crypto, bonds, and company founding mechanics.
> Is Margin Call free to play?
Yes, Margin Call is completely free. No account, download, or payment is required. The entire simulation runs in your browser.
> How realistic is the simulation?
Margin Call uses a 12-factor stock price model with GARCH volatility, a macro economy driven by Phillips Curve inflation, Okun's Law unemployment, and Fed Taylor Rule interest rates, plus Merton distance-to-default for bankruptcy modeling. All subsystems are interconnected in a realistic feedback graph.
> What can you trade in Margin Call?
You can trade stocks (108 companies across 12 sectors), stock options with real Black-Scholes pricing, corporate bonds, and 16 cryptocurrencies. You can also found your own companies, take them through IPO, and manage lifestyle assets like sports teams and real estate.
> Do I need to create an account?
No. Margin Call runs entirely in your browser with no server-side account. Your game saves automatically to local storage. An optional global leaderboard is available but not required.
> Do you retain any of my data?
No. Margin Call runs entirely in your browser. We do not capture, store, or transmit any of your data. There are no accounts, no analytics tracking your gameplay, and no server-side storage. Everything stays on your device.
> Why did you build this?
I built Margin Call for my son, who wanted to learn about trading and starting a business. I wanted to create something realistic enough that the lessons would transfer to real markets — understanding risk, reading charts, managing a portfolio — without risking real money.
> Is this AI slop?
No. Margin Call has been in development for several months with careful attention to realistic market mechanics, economic modeling, and financial accuracy. Development has certainly been accelerated with the help of Claude, but every system has been designed, tested, and calibrated by hand.

CONTACT

Have a question, found a bug, or want to suggest a feature? Send us a message.

DISCLAIMER

Margin Call is a simulation for entertainment and education only. It does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendations, or solicitation to trade real securities. All companies, prices, and economic data are simulated. Past simulated performance does not predict real-world outcomes.