StockTrak Changelog
We are always adding something new to StockTrak! We have added this changelog to make sure professors are always up to date with the newest enhancements and class management tools.
New on StockTrak – Option Spreads (8/8/2023) - StockTrak has been allowing students to virtually trade options for years, but we have recently updated our option spread trading pit to now make it easier for students to place these trades with the correct legs. For Fall 2023, StockTrak has completely revamped our Option Spreads trading engine. The Option Spreads trading pit now includes a “Spread Builder” – students choose the type of spread they want, and we establish which legs they need to select. We also include a description of how this spread works, and charts showing the profit points so students understand how they are building a… Read More
StockTrak Fall 2022 New Feature Update (7/14/2022) - StockTrak is looking to ring in the new school year with one of our biggest updates yet! From mobile to budgeting to forex and everything in between, this is all you need to know about our huge pack of new features! StockTrak 6 - Trading Redesign Our first (and biggest) update is a complete redesign of the StockTrak portfolio and trading interface. This is the 6 major revision to StockTrak since our original launch back in 1996, and the culmination of the last several years of student and professor feedback. Don't worry - all the tools and resources you know… Read MoreBudget Game Summer 2021 Update (7/22/2021) - StockTrak's Budget Game has already become a cornerstone in financial literacy classes across the United States, and our Summer 2021 update brings the most-requested new features directly to your classroom. Over the Summer, key improvements include: Improved Bank and Credit Card Statements Student's checking account, savings account, and credit card statements have had a major visual facelift to more closely align with actual online bank statements from major financial institutions. Summary Statements Our new Summary statement brings the relevant details for each student's financial health in one place, the perfect dashboard for a birds-eye view of their financial health. Full… Read More
Advanced Assignment Tracking (7/22/2021) - StockTrak's Assignments engine have become a key tool utilized by professors around the world to assign reading, video, and interactive lessons while students are engaged with our portfolio simulation and budgeting game. This Fall, we are releasing a major update to how student activities are logged to give more insight than ever to your class activities. Time Tracking The first key improvement is time tracking. With this next update, you as the professor will have the estimated time of completion for each lesson that you assign your students to have a clear picture on the assignment load each student will… Read More
Coming Soon – StockTrak 6 (7/22/2021) - StockTrak has been a leader in online portfolio simulations for over 30 years, and we are excited to announce a whole new revision to our platform coming this Fall! The StockTrak 6 project is a complete re-imagining of our user interface with key goals in mind based on the feedback we have received from tens of thousands of students and professors. Key improvements that you can expect to see implemented over the course of Fall 2021 include: A new beta program. Instead of rolling out each update to all users at once, students will have the option to preview the… Read More
New Student Dashboard (7/22/2021) - This Summer, the StockTrak team has put a premium on ease-of-use and clarity for students with our major updates to the user interface. The star of our new look is the new Student Dashboard, which brings everything your students need to see in one place. We brought the student's progress on your class Assignments front and center, so students are immediately greeted with what they need to focus on first. If your class is utilizing our Budgeting Game, their current game progress comes up next, with calls to get back into the game.This is followed up with your student's current… Read More
Financial Literacy Lesson Update (7/22/2021) - Beyond StockTrak's world-class portfolio simulation, our Assignments engine is what really sets our platform apart as an indispensable tool for university finance, personal finance, and accounting classes. This summer, our curriculum specialists have launched our biggest update in years, focusing on our most in-demand topics. Our major update includes: Investing101 Update Our Investing 101 curriculum is a great refresher for students on the fundamentals of investing as well as an essential component to department-wide or campus-wide investing competitions to help promote financial literacy. Our 10-chapter, 100-lesson course has undergone a comprehensive overhaul in light of changing trends in the personal… Read More
StockTrak Sharpe Ratio Update (7/21/2021) - The Sharpe Ratio has been a staple of StockTrak for years, where professors could include Sharpe Ratio calculations and rankings on all of their classes. Over the summer of 2021, our accounting system has updated the Sharpe Ratio calculation to improve its accuracy for all classes. What Has Changed The previous Sharpe Ratio on StockTrak was a "raw" ratio, based on each user's daily portfolio returns. This had two weaknesses: This included ALL days, including weekend (non-trading) days. This meant the previous Sharpe Ratio calculation under-stated portfolio variance, since days with no change were included in the calculations.If any corrections… Read More
TA Accounts (4/27/2021) - We are getting into grading season for the Spring 2021 semester, when your TA can be a real life saver. With that in mind, we are excited to announce the latest improvement to StockTrak's reporting tools - our TA accounts! How It Works StockTrak traditionally has had a variety of detailed reporting tools for every class available to every professor - but only the class's creator had access to these reports. This made it challenging to have your teaching assistants log in to review the reports and assist with grading. However, our latest update will let you flag any student… Read MoreLaunch A Campus Wide Financial Literacy Program At Your School (11/13/2020) - Financial Literacy Is More Important Than Ever Here’s What Your School Can Do, StockTrak Can Help How many students at your school are already in credit card debt? How many know how to manage their student loans after graduation, let alone save up for a mortgage? If you care about making sure everyone graduates with the financial skills they need to plan for their future, we can help. StockTrak’s Campus-Wide Financial Literacy Program Beyond StockTrak’s investing simulation, we have a whole suite of financial education resources designed from the ground up to promote financial literacy at colleges and universities across… Read More
Weekly Deposits – A Whole New Way To Play The Stock Game! (10/16/2020) - If you have used a stock game in your class before, you know the drill – you choose your class’s custom rules and starting cash (usually around $100,000), your students sign in, and they use that cash to build their portfolio that they manage over the course of a semester. This might make sense to a professional fund manager who has a certain amount of assets, but is a far cry from how personal investors build their wealth over time. StockTrak’s newest enhancement turns this system on its head with our new Weekly Deposits – the biggest thing to happen to… Read More
Free Wiley Certification Course For Top Students (9/3/2020) - Thanks to a new partnership with Wiley Efficient Learning™, the top-performing student in all US and Canadian classes using StockTrak.com this Spring with 20 or more students will receive a free CFA, CFP, SIE, Series 7, or CPA Wiley Review Course of their choosing - a value of $130 to $1,600, depending on the course chosen. All available courses are also featured in our new Certifications Center for students to learn more about the doors they open for their careers. All US and Canadian StockTrak students also get 25% off every course, even if they are not a top finisher… Read More
New Trading Reports (8/25/2020) - StockTrak's reporting features may be the most useful corner of the site for professors and tournament administrators, which is why we are excited to announce our new set of "Fun Fact" reports for every class! Our Fun Facts reports will have useful summaries of the trading data for your class, both as a quick look into the entire class's trading habits as well as a great launching point for class discussions. The new reports include: Top Traded Securities This report will give you a list of the most commonly traded securities in your class. Professors will be able to sort… Read More
Cash Spots Trading (8/25/2020) - At StockTrak, we have supported currency and commodity trading for years for a complete derivatives simulation. This Fall, we are excited to announce the addition of Cash Spots as a new security type, available for all classes! What Are Cash Spots? StockTrak previously supported both Futures and Forex trading, giving leveraged options for trading currencies and commodities at real-time prices. However, these leveraged instruments may be overkill for many classes that focus on un-leveraged investing. The new Cash Spots bridges this gap, giving students the ability to "buy an ounce of gold" or "short a barrel of oil", unleveraged, in… Read More
Personal Budgeting Game For Colleges and Financial Literacy Projects (8/6/2020) - We have been the leader in realistic investing simulations for colleges and universities for over 30 years. Beyond the typical Investments, Portfolio Management, Derivatives, and Economics classes, our platform has seen growing numbers of Personal Finance and Financial Literacy classes adopting it as well. After almost 2 years of collaboration with several faculty and many students, StockTrak is now pleased to announce our new Personal Budgeting Game! About The Personal Budgeting Game With our Budgeting Game, your students will take on the role of fresh college graduates who have just started their first full-time job. They play through a… Read More
StockTrak Engagement Update (7/21/2020) - Our first major update for Fall 2020 is almost here - and we're calling StockTrak's Engagement Update! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZBIYBhe7Qc As the name implies, our Engagement Update is all about getting (and keeping) your classes fully engaged with their StockTrak portfolio throughout the semester. The update is centered on three key components: Assignment Prerequisites, Assignment Rewards, and Badges. Prerequisites The Assignments feature on StockTrak allows professors to require their students to complete certain lessons, watch tutorial videos, and place different types of trades in their portfolio. Previously, a professor would set a "start date" and "end date" for each assignment, with assignments… Read MoreTake Advantage of StockTrak’s Short Service Level (4/6/2020) - During these unusual times, we want to let you know that StockTrak.com is fully operational to support our professors and students. With the wild swings in the stock market over the last few weeks, having your students use StockTrak may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them to experience these extreme moves as we navigate through this global phenomenon. To encourage you to register your class for shorter summer semesters or quarters, we have created a new discounted service. With our Short Service Level, students get a discounted pricing of $19.95 for 7 weeks with full access to the trading platform,… Read More
Brand New Features on StockTrak! (12/5/2019) - Professors, we heard your feedback and requests this past semester, and decided to upgrade our StockTrak site with brand new features to improve your experience on our site. Here is the list of all the new features of our new and improved StockTrak site: 1. Custom Exchanges Tool We created a brand new tool to allow professors to either restrict certain specific stocks, or to only give students a set list of stock to choose from. When setting up your next StockTrak class, you can either enter up to 50 ticker symbols as a "Whitelist" (meaning students can only trade those… Read More
Custom Exchanges (12/4/2019) - Almost every class on StockTrak restricts the universe of securities that are available for each student's portfolio - whether by restricting entire security types or just limiting trades to certain exchanges. However, we have received many requests to take this a step further, to allow professors to either restrict certain specific stocks, or to only give students a set list of stocks to choose from. To bring this into reality, we just released our new Custom Exchange tool: When setting up your next StockTrak class, you can now "Customize" the US exchange - professors can enter a list of ticker… Read More
Enhanced Ranking Report (12/4/2019) - Professors may have already realized there are two separate Rankings pages on StockTrak - the "Live Rankings" (which is visible for students), and the Rank Report (available in your Class Summary Reports). The rank report uses end of day values from the previous trading day, and includes useful tools for managing your class - including buttons to view each student's portfolio and trades, reset each student's account, and add or remove cash. Our latest enhancement makes this report even better - with a new button to view the history of each student's portfolio over the duration of your class: This… Read More
Reset Student Accounts (12/3/2019) - Professors often ask for our team to reset individual accounts, or even entire classes after a "practice period" at the beginning of the semester. These requests have been getting so popular that we built it right into your admin pages! Starting in Spring 2020, the "Ranking" report in your professor administration tools will have a new "Reset" button next to each student. Just press this to reset each student back to their starting position. Please note that your ranking report will not show the portfolio value update immediately (as this page shows only the portfolio value for each student as… Read More
Real-Time Forex Comes To StockTrak (12/3/2019) - The latest enhancement to StockTrak finally brings to bear our real-time, true-to-life Forex simulation! Our previous currency trading simulation allowed trading on a pure cash basis - students could buy and sell currencies at the real-time FX rates. While this is still very instructive, it missed out on the full nuance of Forex trading with dynamic charting tools, tick-by-tick trading data, and (most importantly) realistic margins to amplify buying power. Our latest enhancement to our Forex trading pit brings this all to the forefront - allowing professors to include a complete realistic Forex trading simulation to their international finance and… Read More
User Account Generation (12/3/2019) - We take student data privacy seriously at StockTrak - with constant innovations to keep student data secure. However, we work with more and more schools that have their own restrictions on what kinds of personal information can be gathered, even for administrative purposes. To help make sure that all schools have access to StockTrak, we just released our new "Account Generation" tool. This new feature is an entirely new way to get students registered into your class - instead of using our classic registration link and inviting students to create their own username and password, professors just request however many… Read More
StockTrak Teams (12/3/2019) - StockTrak is often used as a group project in investments and finance classes, where two or more students jointly manage a portfolio. Until now, all students in a group would need to share a login - making it impossible to track individual activity and performance. Enter StockTrak Teams! https://youtu.be/lKGP5Aeg0UM How Does It Work? With a regular StockTrak class, we give the option to let students enter more than one name on their account, which professors can see on their reports. However, this means professors cannot differentiate student activity in a group - this makes it difficult to utilize Assignments and… Read More
New Features Fall 2019 Webinar Recording (8/16/2019) - We just held our "New Features" webinar for the Fall of 2019. If you missed it, you can view our recording here: https://youtu.be/ziUSwCaG2tw Read More
New Custom Reporting Tool Added! (8/7/2019) - Reporting might be THE MOST important feature on StockTrak for professors. Our newest update gives every instructor the ability to build their own Custom Reports - so you can see the fields YOU need, exactly as YOU need to see them! How It Works To use the new Custom Reports, go to your "Summary Reports" page under "Admin" on the main menu after logging in. "Custom Report" will now be one of the available options. Clicking this for the first time will let you choose what you want to see on your first report. Just give the report a… Read More
Equities Trading Page Enhancements (8/7/2019) - We just rolled out enhancements to our equities trading page, integrating more research, better charts, and an easier-to-read quote box for the Fall semester! Check out the image map below to see the new page - hover over any info element for more information. Read More
New Activity Report Shows Trading Activity (8/6/2019) - It takes time to dive into reports on StockTrak, and ensure students are following up with their portfolios as they should. That is why we created our new Activity Report, available for Fall 2019 classes! The new Activity Report shows an interactive graph of your class trading activity over the last 14 or 30 days, showing the breakdown of orders and trades by day, giving a crystal-clear view on how your students are interacting with their portfolios. We also let you dive down into each individual student's activity, showing their daily activity, along with a summary of their most recent… Read More
Stock-Trak Turns 30 (8/2/2019) - Stock-Trak was founded in August of 1990 - which means we just celebrated our 30th birthday! We would like to thank the tens of thousands of professors and millions of students we have served over the last three decades for helping us reach this milestone, and ensure that there are many more years to come! Explore StockTrak's history with the timeline below. To help the legacy continue, be sure to register your class for this semester too! Get More Info Have questions about using StockTrak in your classes? Give us a call at 1-800-786-TRAK or fill out the form… Read More
Stock-Trak Acquires Personal Budgeting Simulation (5/8/2019) - CashCrunch 101 Expands Company’s Educational Personal Finance Simulations For Immediate Release (Montreal, Quebec) May 8, 2019 – Stock-Trak Inc., the leading provider of virtual stock market trading applications for the education and consumer markets, has recently acquired a personal budgeting simulation (CashCrunch 101) from Fortune and Venture, LLC. “The addition of a customizable personal budgeting simulation is a perfect complement to our customizable stock simulation and personal finance curriculum. Beginning this Fall, both our PersonalFinanceLab.com and our StockTrak.com sites will have this budgeting simulation, allowing our K12 and university students to have a broader, financial educational experience” says Mark T.… Read More[changelog-css]