For the uninitiated, paper trading is an entirely simulated investing tool that traders use to experiment with complex and novel day trading strategies with zero risk to their real-world capital.

The contest, sponsored by zero-commission trading platform Webull, will take place over five weeks and is split into two parts.

The first part, the Professional Trading Competition, asks participants to experiment with their best portfolio strategies over four week-long rounds. Each trader will begin the first trading day of the week with $100,000 in simulated capital. At each week's closing bell, the top 10 best-performing portfolios will be awarded an Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) gift card valued between $100 and $5,000 for the top prize.

In addition to the weekly awards, consistently profitable traders will be invited by Webull to contend in the Championship Competition, which carries a grand prize of either a Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model 3 S or a minimum $40,000 student loan payment to the trader with top-performing portfolio.

Although new traders might not have the sophistication of seasoned market watchers, novelty and originality could also pave the way to the championship. The weekly winners may secure their top spot through the success of their strategies, 30 additional participants will be enrolled in the final round based on how many likes their portfolio receives from others in the competition.

Finally, although traders of all stripes can look forward to sharpening their financial minds against each other for the chance to win these prizes, participants will also be contributing their investing efforts toward raising as much as $50,000 in donations to the Shriner's Children Hospital.

Below is a full breakdown of the competition dates and rules participants must follow in order to remain eligible. Traders can participate via the Webull mobile or desktop stock trading apps.

Additional information can be found on the competition homepage https://www.webull.com.

Professional Trading Competition

Round 1: October 7th – October 11th

Round 2: October 14th – October 18th

Round 3: October 21st – October 25th

Round 4: October 28th – November 1st

Championship Competition

Final Round: November 3rd – November 9th

Event Rules:

1. Trading will be open during regular market hours only (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET)

2. Users can place both market orders and limit orders

3. Users may only trade a single stock up to 10 times per day.

4. Users must trade more than three times and no more than 100 times per round

5. Users must own more than three unique stocks

6. Users may only trade stocks that have an average closing price above $5 in the trailing 30-day period

7. Users may only trade stocks with a market cap of at least $300 million

8. No single stock can make up more than 30% of a user's portfolio

9. Any evidence of automated trading or external plug-ins is considered cheating and will result in a ban from all present and future promotion