I have been paper trading for 3 months. It helped me grasp the basics without risking real money. Tried various strategies and made mistakes, but I didn’t lose anything.
Now I feel more ready for real trades. I wish I had started with paper trading first.
Good move spending those three months practicing first. Most people jump straight into live trading and blow their accounts in the first week.
When you switch to real money, your brain works differently even if you know all the strategies. The fear of losing actual cash makes you second guess everything.
Keep using the same strategies that worked in paper trading and stick to small position sizes at first.
Real money hit me like a truck after months of demo trading. My first live trade was identical to ones I’d won on paper, but I closed it early from pure fear.
Lost a 60% winner because emotions took over. That $50 loss taught me more than any paper profit ever did.
Your practice will help but expect your brain to betray you at first.
Emotional discipline changes completely with real money. Start with minimum trade sizes to bridge the gap between paper and live trading.
Three months is a good amount of time to prepare. Many traders dive into live trading too quickly and lose money fast. You made a wise choice by practicing strategies without risking any cash. Just be aware that switching to real trades can feel different due to emotions. It’s best to start off small with real trades, maybe risking about 1% of your account per trade. That change from playing with fake money to handling your own cash impacts everything, even if you feel prepared.
Paper trading helped me figure out my mistakes before risking real money.