Every game ranks players by percentage return on their virtual starting balance, not raw portfolio value. That matters because it keeps things fair — a player with a smaller starting balance has exactly the same shot at the top as anyone else, since everyone is judged on how well their Mate grew what it started with, not the size of that starting pot.
The leaderboard you see while a game is live is provisional, not final. It updates as trading happens, but the result only becomes official once the game closes and we've confirmed it, which happens within 24 hours of the game's closing time. New trades stop 30 minutes before that closing time, open positions are valued (not sold) using the latest available price, and standings can still move during that confirmation window before they're locked in.
Prizes are not the same on every game. Our default is £100 / £50 / £25 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd, but a game's own listing can set a different amount — always check that game's page for its actual prizes rather than assuming the default applies.
Ties are handled by pooling, not a coin flip. A tie is the same percentage return, rounded to 2 decimal places. If two players tie for 1st, they pool the 1st and 2nd place prizes and split that pool equally between them — so a £100/£50 pair tied at the top would each get £75 — and the next player down is paid 3rd place as normal. This works the same way at any rank a game pays, however far down that goes — on a game that pays its top 10, for example, two players tied for 9th would pool the 9th and 10th place prizes between them instead.
Finishing in the money isn't the end of it — there's a short process to actually get paid. You'll need to pass ID verification (a passport or driving licence, which also confirms you're 18+) and request your payout within 30 days of your result. You also have 7 days from the game closing to query your result if something looks off — email legals@stockmates.ai and we'll check your account history against the calculation. Once everything checks out, we pay within 3 working days of the later of your payout request or the end of that 7-day query window.
None of this is locked away in small print — the full rules live on our Rules page, with the complete legal detail in Section 8 of our Terms of Use if you want to go deeper.