Practising on demo

Paper trading is where you find out whether you can follow your own rules, at no cost.

Set it up properly

• Open a demo account with the balance you would really start with. A $100,000 demo teaches you nothing about a $500 account.
• Use the same platform you would use live.
• Trade only your planned markets and hours.

Work through a block of trades

Aim for at least 30 paper trades before judging anything. A handful of trades can look great or terrible by chance. For each one, record the setup, the risk, the result and whether you followed every rule.

What to measure

The main number is not profit. It is how often you followed your rules. A profitable month in which you broke your rules teaches you bad habits. A flat month in which you followed them all is real progress.

Know the limits of demo

Demo results do not predict live results. Fills can differ, and losing real money feels very different. When people switch to live trading, their behaviour often changes, even if their strategy does not.

If you go live

Going live is optional. If you choose to, start with an amount you can afford to lose, keep your risk low and use exactly the same rules. If your discipline slips, go back to demo. That is a sensible decision and not a failure.

Key point

Being patient costs you nothing on demo. Skipping this step can be very expensive.