Are futures Demo accounts realistic for profit?

[Overnight]

No. It is normal in the regard, that it's the usual buy at ask, sell at bid. But it's showing unusual prices at the entry level.

You had a sim engine failure. I've had that on rare occasion with NT7. It fills you at some unobtainable price way off the ladder and shows instant profit after you enter the trade. That will never ever ever happen in RL. If it happens more than once or twice a year on demo, entering tens of trades each day, switch to a different platform.

I.E. That should happen only .0001% of the time. Glitches are to be expected, but should be super rare.

 

[Con1991]

You had a sim engine failure. I've had that on rare occasion with NT7. It fills you at some unobtainable price way off the ladder and shows instant profit after you enter the trade. That will never ever ever happen in RL. If it happens more than once or twice a year on demo, entering tens of trades each day, switch to a different platform.

I.E. That should happen only .0001% of the time. Glitches are to be expected, but should be super rare.

Oh this is a permanent feature on all the Ironbeam brokerages I've used, from Generic Trade to Zumo, Insignia Futures to Go Futures. All show these results every single day these trades are executed. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have contacted these brokers and they promise to look into it, but nothing has been fixed or done as of yet.

 

[Overnight]

Oh this is a permanent feature on all the Ironbeam brokerages I've used, from Generic Trade to Zumo, Insignia Futures to Go Futures. All show these results every single day these trades are executed. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have contacted these brokers and they promise to look into it, but nothing has been fixed or done as of yet.

Then drop the Ironbeam brokerages. A bad fill so outrageous as to be impossible is not a feature, it is an "undocumented feature."

 

[Con1991]

Then drop the Ironbeam brokerages. A bad fill so outrageous as to be impossible is not a feature, it is an "undocumented feature."

Yes, I agree. It is like giving false hope to those looking to trade live eventually. At first and for a while, I thought it may be showing a large disparity with certain trades because of liquidity or something related to that, but I now realize it is more than likely a demo bug/platform glitch. But the fact that they do not or will not fix it, even when I drew their attention to it, makes me wonder how they would treat issues in a live environment. Other traders looking to get started should probably steer clear of this lot.

 

[zoned_post_meridiem]

At the same time, you may have a working strategy even outside these issues, if they’re contained to a small # of trades.

I’d run it live at small size ... small enough that if you lose, it’s cost of training. I know people often preach the importance of sim, but I tend to prefer testing strategies with live accounts at small size.

 

[Redstar Futures]

I think also demo accounts can't display accurate slippage. In real accoynt involving live money, real traders have to take the other side of your order and prices will change cobstantly, so are trader emotions, market conditions. Thats why I think that only live money trading will involve actual slippage. Just my few cents worth.

 

[trader221]

I had the same problem as you.
going from AMP MT5 demo to Rithmic Ninjatrader 8 demo and Quantconnect (backtest only) I always had high performance.
The problems with the future MT5 AMP SIM are:

1) the orders are executed at the last price for example my order to buy at the market price is executed at the bid level if at the moment the last price is the bid.
2) my order a market always started with a profit $ 0 (which is not fair).
3) I can instantly exit with a profit by executing a reverse order if the last price goes from bid (my entry for buy) to ask.
4) limit orders are instantly executed if the last price hits the level.
5) there is never any slippage for market orders. I went from $ 5,000 in demo to + $ 60,000 in one week. haha i wish it was true.
I added internally in my code a function which allows to calculate the exact profit but without much direction because the executions are always fast and there is no slippage.
So, I coded the strategy for ninjatrader and I shot it on a FIFO demo account, I went from 10,000 to + $ 40,000. It's crazy.
abnormally crazy.
although the executions are slower but it still remains illusory results.
To further verify, I coded the strategy for QuantConnect. the platform supposed to be the elite in the field of algorithmic trading open to the big minds of the world.
In 5 years of backtesting, I went from $ 45,000 to + $ 61,000,000.
the limit of madness.
But as a trader told me the best way to find out is by going live.

 

[Overnight]

I had the same problem as you.
going from AMP MT5 demo to Rithmic Ninjatrader 8 demo and Quantconnect (backtest only) I always had high performance.
The problems with the future MT5 AMP SIM are:

1) the orders are executed at the last price for example my order to buy at the market price is executed at the bid level if at the moment the last price is the bid.
2) my order a market always started with a profit $ 0 (which is not fair).
3) I can instantly exit with a profit by executing a reverse order if the last price goes from bid (my entry for buy) to ask.
4) limit orders are instantly executed if the last price hits the level.
5) there is never any slippage for market orders. I went from $ 5,000 in demo to + $ 60,000 in one week. haha i wish it was true.
I added internally in my code a function which allows to calculate the exact profit but without much direction because the executions are always fast and there is no slippage.
So, I coded the strategy for ninjatrader and I shot it on a FIFO demo account, I went from 10,000 to + $ 40,000. It's crazy.
abnormally crazy.
although the executions are slower but it still remains illusory results.
To further verify, I coded the strategy for QuantConnect. the platform supposed to be the elite in the field of algorithmic trading open to the big minds of the world.
In 5 years of backtesting, I went from $ 45,000 to + $ 61,000,000.
the limit of madness.
But as a trader told me the best way to find out is by going live.

For futures, MT5 and AMP/ NT and AMP work just fine, on small volume. No complaints.

 

[zoned_post_meridiem]

5) there is never any slippage for market orders. I went from $ 5,000 in demo to + $ 60,000 in one week. haha i wish it was true.

That's nuts. I use a tick of slippage on each side in my backtesting -- basically, lose $25 on each $ES roundtrip (plus commission) before you account for any P/L. It's a bit conservative, but not by much.

Any software (homegrown or bought) that doesn't include a slippage field is going to give widely overblown profit estimates. I have a strategy (a very simple one) that would make a killing without slippage, but goes negative in live trade conditions.

 

[Overnight]

That's nuts. I use a tick of slippage on each side in my backtesting -- basically, lose $25 on each $ES roundtrip (plus commission) before you account for any P/L. It's a bit conservative, but not by much.

Any software (homegrown or bought) that doesn't include a slippage field is going to give widely overblown profit estimates. I have a strategy (a very simple one) that would make a killing without slippage, but goes negative in live trade conditions.

I have said it before and I will say it again. In a thick market like ES, you will have better fills with a real account than with a sim one, using small order sizes.

Sim engines can only approximate, but with the way these markets have been moving...You'll be fine. Go with the real monies, get the hell out of demo mode. NOW is the time to see, not when we "slip" back into days where the ES range is 10 points up and down.

Get the hell into the markets NOW with all this PA...Stop messing around in SIM!