Well, that's one opinion. Fine if it works for you I guess. The fear factor definitely is limited in paper trading. I find that larger lots is the only way to come close to simulating fear. Not a recommendation, it just works for me. You'll never talk me out of paper trading. I've lost a lot more than 10K in real money and this is the way to go. Not a great trainer for money management, but good for testing methods.
By paper trading my goal is to acheive consistent results on 1 contract NQ. It appears that, with my current method I lose 80% of the days. I am currently trying to backtest a modified version so that I can change the table around. I want to be as mechanical as possible ( even though manual trading ) to identify the siganls, otherwise I feel it leads to confusion and it will most negatively affect when real money will be at stake. Rules are in the making, to challenge the Rulers
ER Mini ----------------------------- #1) -1.6 #2) -1.0 #3) -.2 #4) +2.3 #5) +2.9 ------------------ (2.4 points x100=$240)- (5 RT x5.5=$27.50)= + $212.50 4 Day total=+ $852 Today =+ $212.50 ----------------------------- Cumulative=+ $1064.50 Done early. I'm to frazzled. I know this isn't real money but it's nerve racking anyway. I think posting your good and embarrassing days are effective in giving you a picture of how you are doing and would do if you took your ideas to real money. The anxiety of not knowing if you are capable and of laying that out for people to see isn't the reality of trading money, but does give you a realistic picture of your trading. At least it's been effective in spurring me to be more disciplined. Lesson learned today: don't trade distracted! Was waiting on a repair man to come this morning and it put me way off and down 2.8 points before I had a winning trade. Took bad entries and acted on bad ideas. Luckily the market moved in the middle of the day for me. JIM
Started paper trading a couple days ago with a fake $50,000. Lost nearly a couple thousand right away, but made back it back plus a little today. Today's net p/l = +$2187.49
-737.50 for me, +com. Apparently some of you are quite capable of spotting a trend day. I fought it all the way to the bottom.
no trade today. Trying to find a better/reliable method. Hopefully should start forward testing from tomorrow.