Rapunzl vs. HowTheMarketWorks: Free Stock Game or Full Course?

Let's deal with the obvious thing first: HowTheMarketWorks is free. Rapunzl is not.

If your budget for this school year is zero dollars and there is no path to changing that, you should go set up a HowTheMarketWorks contest this afternoon. It's a good product, it costs nothing, and a free simulation running in your classroom beats a paid one you never got approved.

We find that personal finance as a subject requires game-based learning and immersive simulations, which is why many classrooms without a budget have paired HowTheMarketWorks with EVERFI and NGPF. While the program isn't perfect, it does elevate a lot of the free curriculum options with some project-based learning opportunities.

One thing worth knowing up front: HowTheMarketWorks is a property of Stock-Trak, Inc., and its own site describes the free tier as "supported by advertising." It sits at the free end of a product family that runs up through PersonalFinanceLab and StockTrak at the college level. That's not a knock, but it does explain some of the feature boundaries below.

On the flip side, if you do have a budget for your classroom and prioritize student engagement, then join us as we dive into evaluating the two platforms, identify shortcomings, and outline how Rapunzl helps level-up personal finance in hundreds of classrooms.

What HowTheMarketWorks does well

It was built for schools, not retail hobbyists. Teachers get real class-level control and student data handled to CSPA, FERPA, and COPPA standards. You can create a private competition for just your class or club, set the contest dates around your actual schedule, choose the starting cash balance, and configure commission rates and other trading rules. Students can join by direct link, by searching the class name, or through a one-click Google Classroom share.

Trade Notes are a brilliant feature to track student thinking. The program can require students to write a note justifying every trade. That single requirement turns clicking into reasoning, and it gives you something to grade that isn't just "who got lucky on a meme stock."

There's a learning library behind it. Fifty built-in investing and personal finance lessons are assignable with completion tracking, and there's a companion Investing101 course in the Education Center, so students can go deeper on investing on their own — although the library doesn't carry alignment documentation for most state standards. Teachers can also pull reports on class trading activity. Worth noting for planning: live chat support and account managers belong to PersonalFinanceLab, the paid tier of the same family, not to the free HowTheMarketWorks product.

And the scale is not nothing. HowTheMarketWorks reports usage by over 10,000 teachers and 475,000 students every year. Students start with $100,000 in virtual cash and can trade stocks, ETFs, bonds, and mutual funds, which is a wider instrument set than a lot of classroom simulators bother with.

Limitations of HowTheMarketWorks

A $100,000 starting balance teaches the wrong scale. This is a small thing that isn't small. Most high school students will never have $100,000 to invest, and a portfolio that size makes every gain feel abstract. Rapunzl uses a simulated $10,000 portfolio on purpose. It's closer to a number a young person might actually build toward, and the percentage returns feel like something that could happen to them.

It's a game, not a course. The learning library is good, but it is a library. It is not a standards-aligned personal finance curriculum that you can hand to a first-year teacher and say "this is your semester." If your state just added a graduation requirement and your principal needs to see standards coverage, a stock contest plus 50 lessons is not the same document as a crosswalk and ultimately, students will suffer.

A comprehensive personal finance program needs to cover topics ranging from saving to credit, mortgages, and taxes; so while HowTheMarketWorks can help with the investing portion, it still will require a piecemeal solution to satisfy standards and deliver a course.

The quotes aren't live. This one is easy to miss because the marketing says "real market data," which is true. But the fine print on every HowTheMarketWorks page reads: "Quote data is delayed at least 15 minutes." For a multi-week buy-and-hold contest that genuinely doesn't matter. It matters when a student wants to see the market react to an earnings release during class, or when the whole instructional point is that this is happening right now. Rapunzl prices student portfolios on live Nasdaq data, and that gap is the difference between watching a replay and watching the game.

How Rapunzl elevates engagement beyond free tools

Rapunzl is built as a whole plug-and-play course, with the simulator generating student engagement to elevate learning.

Students manage a simulated $10,000 portfolio of stocks and crypto on live Nasdaq pricing. Around that sits a standards-aligned curriculum that scales from a three-week unit up to a 28-week, year-long course, offered in English and Spanish. The Educator Dashboard handles grade export and state standards crosswalks. It's screen-reader accessible and hosted on Google Cloud.

The part that changes classroom behavior most, though, is the free national scholarship competition. It runs January through late April, students enter at no cost, and recent competitions have included 50,000+ students across 500+ high schools. Rapunzl has distributed $300,000+ in scholarships since 2018.

Here's why that matters more than it sounds. A classroom contest ends when the unit ends. A scholarship competition gives a student a reason to still be paying attention in March, and to explain to their family what they've been doing all semester.

The outcomes back it up: students average 34% on financial literacy assessments coming in, against a 64% national average, and average 93% coming out. Roughly 26 to 29 points above the national average.

Side by side

• Cost. HowTheMarketWorks: Free, supported by advertising. Rapunzl: Paid (contact for current details).
• Starting portfolio. HowTheMarketWorks: $100,000 virtual. Rapunzl: Simulated $10,000.
• Instruments. HowTheMarketWorks: Stocks, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds. Rapunzl: Stocks and crypto.
• Market data. HowTheMarketWorks: Real, but delayed at least 15 minutes. Rapunzl: Live Nasdaq pricing.
• Teacher controls. HowTheMarketWorks: Custom contest rules, Trade Notes, activity reports. Rapunzl: Educator Dashboard, grade export, standards crosswalks.
• Lessons. HowTheMarketWorks: 50 built-in lessons, Investing101 course. Rapunzl: Full standards-aligned course, 3 weeks to 28 weeks.
• Spanish. HowTheMarketWorks: Confirm with vendor. Rapunzl: Curriculum in English and Spanish.
• Competition. HowTheMarketWorks: Private class and club contests. Rapunzl: Free national scholarship competition, Jan to late April.
• Best known for. HowTheMarketWorks: Being the best free school stock game. Rapunzl: Live-data investing inside a full course.

How to actually decide: Ask what your gap is

If your gap is "I need students trading for a few weeks and I have no budget," use HowTheMarketWorks. Turn on Trade Notes. Assign a handful of Investing101 chapters. You'll run a good unit.

If your gap is "I have to deliver a semester course that meets a state requirement," a free contest won't close it on its own. You'll be assembling curriculum from three sources and building your own standards documentation. Some teachers happily do that. Many don't have the hours.

If your gap is "my students disengage after week three," the honest diagnosis is usually that nothing is at stake. More contest settings won't fix that. Live data and a scholarship on the line will.

And a combination is legitimate. Run HowTheMarketWorks in the fall for a low-stakes intro contest, then bring students into a live-data course in the spring when the national competition is running. Teachers pair tools all the time and nobody should feel bad about it.

Rapunzl started at one Chicago high school in 2018 and spread because students who own a portfolio that moves in real time start asking better questions. The point of all of it is that every student graduates high school financially literate.

If a free game gets you there, use the free game.

Frequently asked questions

Is HowTheMarketWorks really free for teachers? Yes. It's free for teachers and students, and teachers can set up private class contests with their own rules and dates. The company describes the free tier as supported by advertising, so plan for students seeing ads in the platform.

Why does Rapunzl use $10,000 instead of $100,000? Because $10,000 is closer to a sum a student might realistically build toward, so the percentage gains and losses feel personal rather than theoretical. Scale affects how seriously students take the decisions.

Does HowTheMarketWorks include a full curriculum? It includes a substantial learning library — 50 built-in lessons plus an Investing101 course — but it is not a full standards-aligned personal finance curriculum with state crosswalks. If you need documented standards coverage, plan to supplement.

Does HowTheMarketWorks use real-time prices? It uses real market data, but the site's own disclosure states quote data is delayed at least 15 minutes. That's fine for a multi-week contest and a limitation if you want students reacting to the market during class.

Can students use Rapunzl outside of class? Yes, and that's part of the design. Portfolios move on live market data, so students check them on their own time, which is when a simulation turns into a habit.

How do I justify a paid platform when a free one exists? Lead with what the free option can't do for your specific requirement: standards documentation, Spanish delivery, a full-semester instructional arc, or student motivation past week three. Administrators respond to gaps, not features.

Curious what the paid version buys? Start a free Rapunzl teacher demo account and compare the simulator, curriculum, and Educator Dashboard against what you're running now.

By Nate Thomas, School Partnerships Lead at Rapunzl and former classroom teacher.