Do Experienced Traders Still Paper Trade?

[zghorner]

curious if any of the winning traders here have ever reverted back to paper trading...perhaps after a bad spell...or perhaps to test a system before putting money on the line? Or do you just reduce your position sizes?

I ask because I haven't ever really paper traded. I did for a very short period at the beginning but Just wasn't convinced that it was beneficial since it removes the emotional stress of having real money on the line.

 

[OptionsOptionsOptions]

Paper trading is useless ..... for the reason you stated in the 2nd sentence.

 

[deaddog]

When I started I traded on a simulator (IB practice account). I used it to forward test strategies. If you can't make money with a simulator you certainly won't in real time.

2 advantages I could see. One I learned the program and could experiment with order types and build hot keys.
Secondly I could practice trade in real time and didn't know what the next bar would be. I got to practice on the right hand side of the chart.

It's nothing like having your own money at risk but you'll be way ahead of new traders who haven't practiced.

AS for paper trading now, Nope haven't done it in years.

 

[luckyfnlou]

No.

 

[Nobert]

If you were a broker, which client would you choose :

#1. The one who paper traded for 2 years ?
#2. The one who rushes all in , right now ?

What kind of % of success, you would have if all of your clients were from the 1'st category ?
If all of em were from the second ?

 

[longandshort]

Not paper trading, but I’m constantly testing and refining my alpha signals. That’s somewhat close enough.

 

[LuckyMac]

Absolutely to continually improve. Once you start stagnating you start falling backwards imo

 

[Bad_Badness]

Paper has it uses, but it also has its abuses. Experience teaches you this.

 

[Bugsy]

Maybe for a Quant or backtesting or refining an algorithm. Beyond that paper trading is useless imo. A person would do better to daytrade a single $3 share then monopoly money. It may be $3 but it's still your money being lost.

 

[Handle123]

I did last year for a month, having automation for so long, presented problem of forgetting patterns and feel of rhythm in ES. Gave me opportunity to improve what I once took for granted.