# Practice stock picking and keep a record of every call.

*The Training Floor · https://sifter.finance/training-floor*

On the Training Floor you make a call on a stock, write down why and what would change your mind, and lock it. It settles against real closing prices on a set date, and the result stays on your record. It is free for students.

## The four exercises

- The Sprint: will one stock beat or lag the S&P 500 over the next two weeks? You say how sure you are, why, and what would change your mind.
- The Spread: will one stock beat another over the next month? It is scored on the first stock minus the second, whichever way the market goes.
- The Quarter: build a book of 4 to 8 stocks for a brief, then say what its beta and tracking error will be over three months. Return is never scored, only how close your risk estimate lands.
- The Book: a $100,000 paper portfolio you run for as long as you like. Every trade needs a conviction from 1 to 5 and a short note.

## What makes it a record

- Every call is time-stamped when you lock it. You can void it for 10 minutes, and after that it stays.
- Each call settles on its own date against real prices. Nothing can be backdated.
- Settled calls cannot be hidden, so the record shows the misses as well as the hits.
- The same four exercises are used by everyone, so one student’s record can be read beside another’s.

## Where the record goes

- The exercises build your Sifter Card, a page you can send to an employer.
- One switch makes the card public or private.
- Your calibration score, which compares how sure you said you were with how often you were right, opens after 12 settled Sprint and Spread calls.

## Questions

### Where can I practice stock picking and keep a record of my calls?

On Sifter’s Training Floor. You lock a call with your reasoning, it settles against real closing prices on a set date, and the result stays on your record with the date you made it.

### Is it real money?

No. Nothing on the Training Floor places a trade or holds money. The Book is a $100,000 paper portfolio, and the other exercises are calls on what a stock will do.

### How is this different from a stock market simulator?

A simulator ranks you on return. The Training Floor records your reasoning before the result is known, then scores things a return hides: whether your confidence matched your results, and how well you understood your own risk.

### Can I try it before a call counts?

Yes. Practice uses the same page on a past date that stays hidden until you answer, and the result comes at once. Practice calls never reach your record.

### Can I show the record to an employer?

Yes. Your Sifter Card has its own link. It shows each call, what you wrote before the result was known, and how it turned out.