LiFin Lab
Financial Derivatives  ▸  Simulations  ▸  The News Desk: Margin Call
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📰 The News Desk: Margin Call

Same ten headlines, same six stocks — but the trading engine underneath now runs on real market mechanics: risk-based margin, bid-ask spreads, transaction costs, the ability to WRITE options (not just buy them), and genuine margin calls with a one-round grace period before forced liquidation. Reading the news right is still necessary. It's no longer sufficient.

How This Works

💰 Starting Capital

₹50,00,000 in cash. Every trade now carries a bid-ask spread and real transaction costs (brokerage + statutory charges).

📈 Six Stocks

RELIANCE, TCS, HDFCBANK, TATAMOTORS, SUNPHARMA, ADANIENT — real sectors, real behaviour under news.

🎯 Three Instruments, Two Sides

Spot (own the share), Futures (long or short, risk-based margin), Options — now BUY or WRITE calls/puts. Writing earns premium upfront but blocks margin and carries real (for calls, uncapped) risk.

🚨 Margin Calls

Risk-based margin (higher-IV stocks cost more). If your available capital falls short, you get ONE round's warning to fix it — then your worst-performing leveraged position is force-liquidated, with a penalty.

📰 Ten Rounds

Each round: a real-style headline, then you trade at the CURRENT price — before the market has actually moved.

🤖 Algo Bot

A disciplined long/short momentum bot trades alongside you — goes long whatever rose ≥1.5% last round, SHORTS whatever fell ≥1.5%, and sizes bigger into stronger signals. No news reading, no emotion, just systematic price-following. It's genuinely competitive — beating it takes real skill, not luck.

📊 Benchmark

An equal-weight buy-and-hold portfolio, built once at Round 1 and never touched again — the "did nothing" baseline.

⚠️ Not every headline means what it sounds like. Some rounds have second-order effects — read past the first sentence.
ROUND 1 OF 10 ⏱ 01:30
Market Update — Round 1

📋 Your Open Positions

What Happened

🏁 Final Report — 10 Rounds Complete

🏅 Badges Earned

🚨 Margin & Risk Report

🧠 Your Behavioural Profile

📜 Full Trade Log