HOW TO PLAY

Sign up free with an email, a username and a password, and $25,000 in play money is waiting in your account. There's nothing to pay and nothing to cash out, because every dollar here is play money.

Next time, sign in with your email or username and your password. We'll send a link to confirm your email, and you can trade while it's on its way.

The NBA market lists 240 players and the NFL market lists 188, from quarterbacks and receivers to linebackers and safeties. Each player has a ticker and a price, and you can filter the board by league, team or position, or find anyone with the search box at the top of the screen.

Rather back a team? Every team trades as its own team stock, valued on how the team plays, so you can buy a team you believe in or short one you think is overachieving. Newly listed players open on the IPO calendar.

Open a player to see his price chart going back to last season, his last ten games, his season average, recent news and every recent trade on him. A player's stock is worth what the market thinks he'll keep producing, so the best research mixes the box score with a read on where other traders are heading.

Pick a side, a number of shares and an order type on the player's page, get a quote, and confirm. Max fills in the most you can buy right now, and the quote shows how big the position will be in your portfolio. Every trade costs a 1% fee.

You don't need a full roster or one player per position. Buy anyone you like, as many as you like, with one limit: no single player can be more than 35% of your account.

Want to buy or sell at a set price instead of right now? Use a limit order to buy below or sell above today's price, or a stop to sell automatically if a price falls to a level you pick. The FAQ covers every order type.

Your portfolio shows every position with what you paid, what it's worth now, and two kinds of profit: paper profit on shares you still hold, and real profit you've locked in by selling. Prices update live, so it's worth checking back during game nights.

Run low and you can reload $10,000 of play money when your account drops under $15,000, $10,000, $5,000, up to 3 times in any 7 days. Reloads keep you in the game but never help your ranking.

Each league runs a monthly contest and a season-long contest. Join one from the contests page and you get a fresh portfolio with $10,000, kept apart from your all-time portfolio, so everyone starts even and it comes down to your picks.

You can be in several contests at once. The bar at the top of the screen shows which portfolio you're trading in, and you can switch it there or from your portfolio page, where each one opens up to show its holdings.

Rather buy and hold? The Long Haul view of the season contest ranks only traders who don't flip players within a week.

Start a private contest with friends to get your own boards, with up to 50 members.

On game nights, the Scores page shows every game live with in-game lines for listed players. Live numbers are unofficial and can lag a few minutes, and trading on a player reopens after the final.