Everything you need to know

StarTrader is a simulated trading platform built on top of the sports world you already know. Instead of stocks and bonds, you trade player shares: fractional ownership in the performance of real athletes across the NFL, NBA, MLB, and more.

Think of it as fantasy sports crossed with a brokerage account. You earn and spend StarCoins to build a portfolio of players and ETFs. Prices move in real time based on performance, news, and market demand. Your goal: buy low, hold smart, and build a portfolio worth more than everyone else in your league.

Three things make StarTrader different

• It's a real market. Prices move continuously based on player performance, news, and how much the market wants a share. There's no fixed scoring system. Just supply, demand, and real-world results.
• Strategy runs deeper. Holding periods, tax rates, order types, and portfolio diversification all matter. The longer you hold a winning position, the less you pay when you eventually sell.
• Leagues are genuinely competitive. When you compete in a league, the final standings decide how each member's virtual StarCoin holdings transfer between accounts at season's end. Commissioners shape the economics of the whole league, all in-platform currency with no cash value.

Everything on StarTrader runs on StarCoins (SC), the platform's virtual currency. You use StarCoins to buy player shares, fund league accounts, and access platform features. StarCoins are a one-way currency: they can be earned or purchased, but cannot be converted back to cash.

How You Earn StarCoins

Your Wallet

Your StarCoin balance lives in your personal wallet. From there you can fund personal trading accounts and league accounts. Each account has its own balance. StarCoins only move when you tell them to.

You can move StarCoins from any personal trading account back to your wallet at any time. League accounts are locked for competition until the season ends.

Leagues are where StarTrader really comes alive. A league is a private competitive group where members trade against each other over a season. The commissioner picks the format, the scoring, and the rules, so no two leagues have to play the same way. When the season ends, the final standings determine how members' virtual holdings transfer between accounts.

Creating a League

Any user can create a league and become its commissioner. Commissioners control the league's format, scoring, season structure, and tax rates. League size depends on the commissioner's tier:

Format: Head-to-Head or Cumulative

Scoring: Price Gains, Yield, or Both

Commissioners choose how a portfolio's value gets measured, and it's the default scoring mode for every new league. Yield scores on the yield players generate from real performance, the closest thing on StarTrader to the fantasy football or fantasy basketball scoring you already know: your players rack up real stats, and those stats turn directly into your score. Investment scores on portfolio value alone, more like trading actual stocks. Total return blends the two, with the commissioner setting the exact mix between price appreciation and yield.

How Yield Is Actually Calculated

A player's yield isn't a flat number. It comes straight from their real-world performance, scaled by two things: how much of that performance counts in their sport, and how big a slice of the player you own.

1. 1

   Fantasy points

   Every game, a player earns fantasy points based on their real stat line, the same kind of scoring you already know from fantasy sports.

2. 2

   A per-sport factor

   Those fantasy points get multiplied by a fixed rate for the sport: 1.00 for NFL, 0.662 for MLB, and 0.153 for NBA. This keeps yield payouts comparable across sports with very different scoring volumes.

3. 3

   Your ownership percentage

   The result is then multiplied by the share of the player you own: your shares held divided by that player's total shares outstanding. Own 5% of a player's float and you collect 5% of the yield pool their performance generates that game.

Season Length and Sports

Leagues run as a single season with a defined number of regular-season weeks and an optional playoff bracket, or as a continuous league that never resets. Commissioners also choose which sports are in play: NFL, NBA, MLB, or all three at once.

Payouts: How the Standings Pay Off

At season's end (or whenever the commissioner closes the league), holdings move based on the payout structure the commissioner picked at setup:

Roster, ETF, and Visibility Rules

Read the full league modes and settings guide →

The Commissioner's Power: Tax Controls

The most unique element of league play is the commissioner's ability to set custom league tax rates, which creates a meta-game on top of the trading itself.

Rate ceiling: 50% regardless of tier or commissioner settings.

Season End: The Transfer Mechanic

When a payout actually moves holdings between members (winner takes all, winner percentage, or top N), the transfer follows the same process. Here's what happens when one member's assets move to another:

1. 1

   In-Kind Transfer First

   The winner receives the loser's player share positions directly, with no forced selling. This preserves value and avoids unnecessary market impact.

2. 2

   StarCoin Balance Transfer

   After positions, the loser's remaining StarCoin balance transfers to the winner.

3. 3

   Liquidation (only if needed)

   Positions are sold only if needed to protect the loser's threshold. Largest unrealized losses sell first, then most recently acquired gains (LIFO).

Cost Basis on Transferred Positions

Every athlete on StarTrader has a share price, a number that reflects how the market values their current and projected performance. Prices change continuously based on what's happening on and off the field.

What Moves a Player's Price?

Shares and Float Size

Every player has a number of shares available, called their float, assigned when they first list based on their projected market cap. The larger the projected value, the more shares are issued. Limited-float players are rarer and more volatile: a small amount of buying moves their price more. Players with massive floats are more stable, like blue-chip stocks. (Stock splits, which adjust a player's share count over time, are coming in a future update.)

ETFs: Diversify by Team or Position

Don't want to pick individual players? StarTrader offers ETFs: bundled positions that give you exposure to an entire team, a position group (e.g., "NFL Running Backs"), or a division. ETFs are available to all subscription tiers.

IPOs: Get In Early (Coming Soon)

IPOs aren't live yet, but here's the plan. When a new player enters the platform (a highly anticipated rookie, a mid-season trade acquisition), they'll debut through an IPO (Initial Player Offering). Getting in on an IPO will mean buying shares before the market has fully priced in the player's potential.

Market Data

Every plan, including Free, sees live real-time prices as the market moves. There is no delayed data on any tier. When a player's stock moves, you see it instantly.

Trading on StarTrader works like a brokerage account. You buy shares when you believe in a player and sell when you want to lock in gains (or cut losses).

Order Types

Daily Trade Limits & Fees

Watchlists & Alerts

Stay ahead of the market with watchlists and price alerts. Free and Plus users have no watchlists. Pro subscribers get up to 5. Elite subscribers get unlimited watchlists with advanced alert triggers.

StarTrader's tax system is one of its most distinctive features, and one of the most strategically rich. When you sell a position for a profit, you owe taxes on those gains. How much depends on how long you held the shares and your subscription tier.

Short-Term vs. Long-Term Rates

Rolling 12-Month Average Rate

Your effective tax rate is a rolling 12-month weighted average of your subscription history, not just your current tier. The platform takes a monthly snapshot on the 1st of each month and averages your rates across the past year.

This prevents gaming. Upgrading to Elite for one month just to sell everything at a 5% rate won't move the needle much. Staying on a higher tier consistently is what lowers your effective rate over time.

Tax Day

Taxes aren't collected on every trade. They accumulate and settle on Tax Day. When exactly is Tax Day? That depends on your league type:

Accrued Tax Liability