Investopedia.com's stock simulator runs in a similar fashion to ours. It grabs data from an external source at a 15-20 minute delay. They manage to keep it open 9-4. They do it by having a 15 minute delay for each transaction. Let's say I want to buy shares at 10:30am, I'll put the order in at 10:30, but the order won't go through until 10:45. This way I get the stocks at a real time price, while still having the delay in the simulator. I'd also like to note this would make it impossible for people to manipulate the system without inside information (which won't happen and we can't prove).
This could work, but the next question becomes would the developer actually do it? Last time (when the trader came out) the dev told andrew that it was a side hobby and if people wanted a realistic trader, they should develop their own or look elsewhere. If it's not too much worth for both parties, +1.
