we hear it all the time: people telling newbies to stick with the sim until a full month is profitable, better six. but what I'm curious to know is, how many of you successful traders actually did it that way? how many of you really waited for simulator profitability?
Don't know about anyone else, but personally speaking i did about 3 months of profitable sim trading before going live. Overall, i did not really help me as i quickly learned that there is a BIG difference between sim and live.
Sim is useful only if you are trading a defined plan with specific rules. Otherwise its a waste and actually harmful.
sim trade can help only when you have strict rules that you can apply in the real world. second and more important item is the state of your mind when playing the sim vrs real money. with sim it is that 'don't care' feeling even if into loss or huge profits. in the real world, any loss or profits gives feelings like 'stick on a little bit more' for losses. many folks have blown up accounts because they could not close a loss position which became a monster loss eventually. and 'close and lock profits now' for profits. this results in mega paper profits for the system but you as a trader earning only 10% of the what actually was possible in actual trading.
Even with the best laid plans a sim trade CANNOT simulate the emotions of risking REAL $$$. I personally think its good for learning how to use your platform/execute orders. But as far as trading you learn nothing until you put your hard earned money on the line. Just my 2¢
The way you treat your emotions/mindset when you are SIM trading is the way it should be when you are live trading. If there's an emotional difference between how you trade on the sim and live, then you shouldn't be trading live. Look at all these chumps talking about 'emotions' when going live, ha ha. These emotions stem from being over leveraged, undercapitalised etc. They've probably ony got a $5k account
'These emotions stem from being over leveraged, undercapitalised etc. They've probably ony got a $5k account' only partially true. seems your statement means if account is not leveraged then losses can be let free. that's idiotic!
your trading a very difficult market, if u have a strategy ,become confortable with it,skillful, then trade and learn about the ups and downs emotionally,the emotions can only be mastered thru live trading and they will cause you to freeze like a deer in the headlights. If you have a plan that you have learned to execute,you will have a chance. If you trade without any skills u will lose ,probably several accts before u get it, its an expensive education that u can get for free sim trading. You cant make any money sim trading,but when u start to trade for real it will help you limit your losses. Its not a video game so dont try to run up the balance, try to learn what to do when your wrong,start out with learning to take stop losses.This is very expensive and emotionally draining for a new trader in a real acct,add in commissions and you will be wiped out.After u haved learned how to respect stops, learn how to ride a winner,using stop losses, after you learn all that along with a strategy, then open your acct. If you find u dont have the discipline for stops ,stay in sim til you have a better strategy,either way you will probably get killed in your first acct so dont put a lot in.And dont be in a hurry to make money ,you will go broke faster.Wait for your sytem or strategy to give you a trade.You will only see a few per week at first,but thru time and osmossis it will sink in and you will see more.
http://www.investopedia.com/university/Dowtheory/ start out with these few lessons on agreeable markets, when you see a divergence its a trading opportunity