I have been learning these markets since i was 15, 20 now...I trade FOREX, doing quite well in real time (No big money accounts yet, just testing) however my main focus is stocks. Now i have told my self i will not open a real account untill i have tryed my system and others on a DEMO account for at least 2 years. Its been 1 year now and today i just watched one of many stocks i watch shoot up like a crack whore. Everyone take a look at HANS in the last, lets say 3 to 6 months! When it was at around $60.00 that's when i entered! Now look at it today! $105.00 Not sure why i posted this but i was curious if anyone out there who is trading on a DEMO account for the moment has missed out on some great opportunities? kastro
Trading a demo acct for more than a month or two is a complete waste of time, unless you have no money to trade with. Trading with real money is a differrent ball game once all the emotions come into play. Almost everyone makes money on demo accts. Guess how many make money with real ones? Open a really small forex acct and trade mini lots if you must, but go live, or you are going to waste another year. Jay
Jayford. I Agree 100% that is why i do trade with real money with FOREX. However, i do not have 25k just yet for my account to trade live with.
depends what you mean by your "system". if it is truly a system, then i would disagree. systems have defined entry and exit points which should not be overridden by emotions. in that case a system ceases to exist and you are a trader, not a system developer/executer. i worked for a hedge fund for a long time where we reviewed systems to invest significant $$$ in. we would require MINIMUM 2 years historical trades to backtest. (the system could not be overridden). if it made it past our requirements, we paper-traded the system for 3-6 months before going live. the point of paper trading is not to make you feel like crap if a stock shoots to the moon, but to see how your system performs in a variety of market cycles, seasons, financial environments, etc.... if that 1 stock hurts the performance of your system too much, then your system is not robust enough. while even a system isn't expected to generate 100% winning trades, it should not be dependant on too few names to cover the losses of the majority either. you're young, and the market isn't going anywhere. when you decide to go live you will catch other crack whores on the rise!
============= Kastro316; He is right; temper that with dont know how you will do with an actual 20% daily drop in HANS till you get there. And not saying a drop is limited to that; grass only looks greener on other side
The VAST majority of people who are pure systems traders will start over riding their systems when they go live IF they do not have previous trading experience with real money. Doesn't matter if they have defined rules, they will ignore them. Obviously, there are exceptions, but they are definitely in the minority. I've lost track of how many threads I've seen where people can't follow their systems. If you have experience with trading real money, then paper trading a new system definitely makes sense to see how it works. Jay
what kills traders are emotions. including frustration. if you still have them, trading your live money, you may want to trade a demo more or more often until you massage your emotions out of your trading system. only fools go live when they are still losing money on a demo or increase their size when making smaller (live) trades. sure, there are those who pay their tuition and go on to better trading - but there's a hell of lot more who just die in the markets. I trade a live forex account but also have over a dozen demos running in the background trying and testing new strategies all the time. a number of them have bit the dust. sure am glad I didn't bring them live. little merit in getting bagged: I speak from having that experience in the stock market years ago. best, s
i bought HANS at 23.00 about a year ago along with CHK at $15. i regret not adding to my position and letting winners like MATK and TASR become losers. using real money is way different. i agree trading can be psychologically frustrating and damaging. but remember that there will always be opportunities. just have a solid strategy and plan and move on the next trade.