Is there a trading simulator with Level 2?

Yes. Hindsight Markets replays real past market days with the full order book by exchange and every print on time and sales, and you trade against that book with simulated money.

What is Level 2 in trading?

Level 2 shows the order book beyond the best bid and ask: the prices below the bid and above the ask where orders are waiting, and how many shares sit at each, usually split by exchange.

How do you read Level 2 data?

Look at where size sits on each side and how it changes. A large offer that keeps getting taken while the price holds can be a sign of buying, and one that refreshes or pulls can mean the opposite. Read it with the tape, never on its own.

What is tape reading?

Reading time and sales, the list of every trade with its price, size and time, to judge who is in control. Prints at the ask suggest buyers are paying up; prints at the bid suggest sellers are hitting bids.

How do you learn tape reading?

By watching a lot of real tape on the kind of stock you trade, slowly at first. Replaying past days at half speed lets you read the same move more than once and check what you thought against what happened next.

Is Level 2 data worth it for day trading?

For short holds on fast small caps, most momentum traders read it, because it shows the size waiting at each price. It is less useful for longer holds. Practising with it first tells you whether it helps your own trading.

Level 2 and tape reading practice on real market days

Reading Level 2 and the tape is a skill you learn by watching a lot of real order flow. Hindsight Markets is a trading simulator with Level 2 and time and sales replayed from real past market days, so you can practise reading the bids, the offers and the prints on a small cap as it runs, slow it down, and trade what you see with simulated money.

What you see in Level 2 during a replay

The Level 2 window shows that day's full order book, exchange by exchange, as it stood at each moment of the replay. Your own orders are marked at their price, so you can see where you sit in the book. Click a price to place an order there, or drag your marker to move it.

Its header carries the facts a small-cap trader checks before clicking: the listing exchange, whether the stock is easy to borrow, hard to borrow or has no shares to borrow, SSR when the short sale restriction is on, and H or P when the stock is halted or paused. The Level 1 block beside it shows the current LULD band.

What you see on the tape

Time and sales shows that day's prints in order as the replay clock reaches them. Each print is coloured by where it traded against the quote: at the bid, at the ask, inside the spread, above the ask or below the bid. You can hide prints under a minimum size and highlight the large ones, so the blocks stand out on a busy stock.

MEDS at 10:48 ET on 2026-09-16, halted on a LULD pause: time and sales shows no prints, Level 2 shows the resting depth still streaming, beside the one-minute chart.

Halts and pauses, as they happened

When a stock hits a limit up-limit down band and pauses, the tape stops while the book keeps updating, just as it did that day. While the exchange runs the reopening auction, Level 2 shows the price the stock would reopen at and how much is left unmatched, whenever the exchange published it, and the reason for a halt when one was given. Market orders do not fill during a halt, and a limit order waits for the reopen. The bands follow the rules that applied on that date.

What you can practise

Reading bids and offers. Watch a large offer on a runner: is it being taken print by print, or does it pull away as the price reaches it?
Reading the prints. See whether buyers are paying the ask or sellers are hitting the bid, and how the pace of prints changes near the high of the day.
Your place in the queue. Post a limit order and watch it wait behind the orders that were there first. A print at your price does not mean you were filled.
Fills against the book. Send a marketable order and see it fill against the displayed size, best price first, then check the slippage in your journal.
Halts. Watch a stock pause, read the reopening price, and decide what you would do at the resumption before you see it.
Speed. Slow the replay to half speed to read the tape, then raise it as the reading gets quicker. Pair it with hotkeys so the order goes in as fast as the read.

Fills are simulated. Off-exchange and hidden liquidity never fill you, and your own order does not move the market after it fills; the full list is on the disclaimer page.

Common questions

Is there a trading simulator with Level 2?: Yes. Hindsight Markets replays real past market days with the full order book by exchange and every print on time and sales, and you trade against that book with simulated money.
What is Level 2 in trading?: Level 2 shows the order book beyond the best bid and ask: the prices below the bid and above the ask where orders are waiting, and how many shares sit at each, usually split by exchange.
How do you read Level 2 data?: Look at where size sits on each side and how it changes. A large offer that keeps getting taken while the price holds can be a sign of buying, and one that refreshes or pulls can mean the opposite. Read it with the tape, never on its own.
What is tape reading?: Reading time and sales, the list of every trade with its price, size and time, to judge who is in control. Prints at the ask suggest buyers are paying up; prints at the bid suggest sellers are hitting bids.
How do you learn tape reading?: By watching a lot of real tape on the kind of stock you trade, slowly at first. Replaying past days at half speed lets you read the same move more than once and check what you thought against what happened next.
Is Level 2 data worth it for day trading?: For short holds on fast small caps, most momentum traders read it, because it shows the size waiting at each price. It is less useful for longer holds. Practising with it first tells you whether it helps your own trading.

Practise reading the book on a real past day

Open a morning a small cap ran, slow it to half speed, and read the book and the tape as it moved.