Hi. I spent several years in a sim, while working jobs that did not allow time to day trade effectively. I also spent much of 3 years with a simulator, while working on methods and software. Conclusions? Sim helps with some things in a way real trading cannot without being prohibitively expensive. However, sim delays building emotional comfort needed to trade real money. So, use sim, but be aware it can be a distraction. Sim does not penalize exploring risky modes you would never test with real money. A quandary is this: when strategies or trading styles are found that are profitable in sim, you may not allow yourself to put them into practice.
A proper real tick data looks and is perfect so you can practice scalping market times at the weekend where you can't demo them live, plus m1 candle data is cheating cant backtest day trading off that really.
Simulation is make believe trading where emotion is completely removed. When you go on to real trading emotion is there. Fear and Greed. There is no going around it and when you lose monies, it is for "real". As others have already noted, trade small amounts until you master real life trading then, you can go trade with confidence. You got to get thru with the mental part of losing because you are going to lose monies!
It can be summed up by the following equation: SimTrading - RealTrading = KimKlaiman Whereas Kim is a +integer
there are some technical differences , but it mostly on execution side, and depending on the market and instrument sim or paper trading is an invaluable process of training: it saves you money, time, and risk of being decimated by the market while you developing your trading method
What is the diff between real and simulated trading ? The ability to withdraw funds, Silly! Still??? Name for me a stressful occupation that does not have Simulations as part-n-parcel of training, and I'll buy you a beer. C'mon guys. It's 2018.
%% Exactly. Paper trading can be real helpful, on leaning, learning more .BUT so called ''dry firing ''can help win in target shooting, but NOTHING like burning powder ,when money is on the line/recoil, noise+ muzzle blast +the crowd is watching.Brokers like sim trading so OK by me.