David Insel is quite the investor.

As a computer science major in college, he didn't think he would end up getting involved with the markets, but after logging onto a trading site called Marketocracy, he said he was bitten by the bug.

“There is a really fun element to it. You are competing, basically, against everyone else in the market,” says Insel. “At the end of the day, the best idea wins. Over the short term volatility is up and down and it's hard to tell if your idea is good or not. But over the five to ten year period, if your thesis is coming to fruition, it is an exciting thing to see.”

On the Marketocracy website you are trading in real time, but it's not real money, so you don't risk losing that nest egg, while you learn the ropes of trading day-to-day.

You also build up a track record that the site documents so you can share with potential employers down the road.

You sign on for free, and are given a $1 million account of "Marketocracy money" to invest in your own portfolio.

Portfolio Manager Ken Kam says in his opinion is that new investors can stomach "virtual losses" much easier than real ones.

“The site is set up to let anyone run a model portfolio,” says Kam. “So you have to do it in real time meaning you can't forget about trades that lost money. You have to put in your trades in real time. It's matched against market transaction, so we know the trades could really happen. Over time you learn what you are good at investing in, and what it is that you’re not.”

Kam tells us their savvy investors have some very good ideas, and that's why they actually use research from the 100 best traders with model portfolios to help them make decisions for the Masters 100 Mutual Fund, which is a real fund that's traded worldwide, and is four-star rated at Morningstar, a leading provider of independent investment research.

Mark Taguchi, President of Research at Marketocracy says they were so impressed by Insel that they hired him as one of those 100 traders, and they now pay him to share research and strategies with the Masters 100 Mutual Fund Managers.

“He's been a member for well over close to six years,” says Taguchi. “His five-year track record is one of the best on our site, which would have put him as probably the top performing mutual fund in the country if his portfolio was a fund.”

The company says they feel great about having a team of 100 investing "fanatics" as their advisors. It's a unique model, one that has been helping them to bring in double the markets return over the last six years.

— Lindsey Pless