The best markets for a beginner trading contest
Which instruments to include when most of your players have never traded: five markets people already understand, and the ones to leave out of a first demo trading competition.
The single most common mistake in a first trading contest is the market list. Organisers who trade themselves pick what they trade, and the rest of the office opens the trade screen, sees USDJPY and NAS100 and AUS200 next to each other, and quietly closes the tab.
A contest for beginners needs markets that people already have opinions about. That is the whole trick. If someone has a view (“gold goes up when things get scary”, “Bitcoin is due a dip”, “the Aussie dollar always drops when China sneezes”), they will place a trade. If they have no view, they will not.
Five markets almost everyone has a view on
Gold (XAUUSD). The safe-haven story is common knowledge, the price is in the news, and it moves enough to make a contest interesting without being wild. If you include one market, include this one.
Bitcoin (BTCUSD). Love it or loathe it, everyone has an opinion, and it moves at the weekend when everything else is closed. It is also volatile, which is why a daily loss limit matters more when it is on the list.
The S&P 500 (US500). “The market” in most people’s heads. Up on good news, down on bad, and easy to follow in any news app. For an Australian office, the ASX 200 (AUS200) plays the same role closer to home.
The Aussie dollar (AUDUSD). For Australian groups this is the currency pair people actually hear about. Elsewhere, swap it for the local currency against the US dollar: GBPUSD in the UK, EURUSD in Europe, USDCAD in Canada.
Oil or silver. One more commodity gives the list some variety. Silver (XAGUSD) is gold’s more excitable cousin; oil is the one that makes the news.
Five markets is plenty. A list of four or five means the leaderboard is readable (“who is long gold?”), the chat has shared reference points, and nobody feels they need a finance degree to take part.
What to leave out of a first contest
- Minor currency pairs. EURGBP, USDCHF, NZDJPY: nobody in your office has a view on any of them.
- Too many indices. NAS100 and US500 move together. Pick one.
- Small-cap crypto. SOL is fine for a crypto community; for a general office it is noise.
- Everything. “All markets” sounds generous and produces paralysis. Save it for a second contest with people who know what they are doing.
Leverage and the loss limit matter more than the list
Whatever markets you choose, two settings decide whether beginners enjoy the contest or blow up on day one:
- Leverage at 1:10 or lower. Enough to make a 1% move feel like something, not enough to lose half an account on a Tuesday.
- A daily loss limit around 10%. When someone hits it, trading pauses until tomorrow instead of ending their contest. This is the rule that keeps beginners in the game and in the chat.
On Awarnda both are single settings in the wizard, and the Beginners group runs gentle contests with exactly this shape if you want to see one before creating your own. For the longer version of the rules question, read the rules that keep everyone playing.