TradeOff Review – A Gamified Trading Platform

Introduction To TradeOff

TradeOff is an online trading simulation that brings a game approach to technical trading. On this platform, trading is sped up to fit into a two-minute competition. Your goal is to earn more profit in that sped-up simulation than the competitor, which may be a bot or another trader.

TradeOff can be a good way to practice placing quick day trades if you stick to the free bot-based competition. Once you move into human competition, there may be real money on the line, and TradeOff feels less like a trading simulator than a gambling site.

Competition Overview

With TradeOff, technical trading is turned into a game. The best way to illustrate how this game works is to walk through a competition against one of the platform’s trading bots.

Before the competition starts, you’re shown a chart that’s drawn from historical data from an unspecified company. The chart may have one-minute, hourly, or daily bars, or anything in between. When the competition starts, trading data will appear in quick succession – regardless of the time represented by each bar, a single candlestick takes less than one second to form and complete in the simulation. The entire simulation lasts for just two minutes.

You and the bot competitor each start with $100,000 in simulated money and the goal is to end up with the most possible money at the end of the two-minute time period. During the simulation, you can buy, sell, short, and cover in lots of 100 shares at a time. Or, you can bet all of your simulation money at once to open a long or short position. TradeOff uses TradingView charts, so you have access to around 100 technical indicators, multiple bar types, and drawing tools to help you make trading decisions within the simulation.

Match Types

TradeOff supports both head-to-head matches with a variety of trading bots and live multiplayer competitions with other traders.

Bot competitions are available at any time. There are nine simulated competitors available on the platform, ranging in difficulty level from easy to hard. You have to unlock the bots progressively – that is, you have to beat all of the easy bots before you are allowed to play against the medium bots. These competitions are always one-on-one, and many of the easy bots consistently lose money during the matches.

Live competitions are scheduled for a specific time, either by individual players or by the TradeOff platform itself. These matches may be limited in the number of players that can enter – up to five or 20 players – or they may allow any number of players to join. The rules for the matches are the same, but you’re likely to face much stiffer competition from other traders than from the bots.

If there are no matches scheduled when you log onto TradeOff, it’s easy to set one up. You get to decide whether there’s an entry fee or prize, and whether those are in tokens or cash. The match is scheduled for a few minutes from when you first create it, giving other players on the platform a chance to join.

TradeOff Pricing Options

Somewhat surprisingly, the vast majority of TradeOff’s functionality is completely free to use. To start, there’s no charge whatsoever to play head-to-head simulations against the platform’s bots. If you want to play live trading matches against other humans, you have the option to filter current scheduled matches according to which ones are free to enter, or to create your own free match that’s open to everyone.

The majority of live matches on TradeOff are paid, but not in cash. The platform gives you tokens when you win a match against its bots, and you can use these to enter live competitions that have an entry fee listed in tokens. In those matches, the winner typically takes a large token prize, which can in turn be used to enter more competitions.

In some cases, though, token-entry competitions actually offer cash prizes. For example, the featured “Titans of Trade” competition, which happens nightly at 7:30 pm, requires 25 tokens to enter but offers a $50 cash payout.

Of course, there are live competitions that require cash entry. The entry fees are typically small – $0.50 or $1 per match – but the payouts to the winner are also only about $5 per match. 

This pricing structure means that the vast majority of traders will never have to pay anything to play on TradeOff. However, the platform closely resembles a gambling website and the paid matches seem to prey on traders’ natural appetite for financial risk.

Customization and Layout

The TradeOff platform itself isn’t all that customizable, but it’s very well-laid out and streamlined. You’ll find all of the current available matches under three tabs – Practice (bot matches available anytime), Compete (user-initiated matches), and Featured Events (daily scheduled matches createdby TradeOff). Helpfully, the menu will pop up alerts when a live competition is coming up in the next few minutes.

TradeOff also has a social aspect to it. You have a chat window that allows you to communicate with other players during competitions, and you can add specific traders as friends to send messages and co-schedule matches.

Platform Differentiators

TradeOff is relatively unique. While there are dozens of trading simulators available, both free and paid, TradeOff turns technical trading into a fast-paced competition by pitting you against other traders to see who can make the biggest profit. Thanks to the bot competitions, which are unlimited and can be accessed at any time, it’s also possible to use the platform to practice recognizing chart patterns as they develop in accelerated time. Just beware of paying for competitions in TradeOff – it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the reward for many of the cash matches doesn’t justify the entry fees.

What Type of Trader is TradeOff Best For?

TradeOff serves two purposes. On the one hand, it can be a fun social platform for traders who want to experience some low-risk competition with other technical traders. On the other hand, it offers a way for newcomers to day trading to practice their skills in an environment that feels a bit more high-pressure than a traditional simulator. As long as you stick to TradeOff’s free or token-entry matches, there’s no downside to anyone trying out the platform to work on honing technical trading skills.

Pros

• Unique game environment trains quick recognition of technical patterns
• All bot matches and many live matches are completely free to play
• Social component allows you to chat with and friend other traders
• You can create a match at any time if none are scheduled
• Cash prizes possible, even in token-entry matches

Cons

• Prizes for cash-entry matches are surprisingly small
• Small network means other players aren’t always available for matches
• Not all matches are based on intraday charts, making it less suitable for day traders