How many points per day do you get during papertrade

networm · Jan 30, 2003

Is that hard to achieve 4-8 points on ES a day? A trading school said you would be ready for real trading if you had 15 continuous winning days on paper.

jay567 · Jan 30, 2003

paper trading is different because in real trading you don't get instant fills (unless using market orders but then there is slippage) and most importantly the psychology is different because there is money on the line.

jpomerenke · Jan 30, 2003

you always get pretty much instant fills on the ES and very lil slippage....

jay567 · Jan 30, 2003

sorry... i mean that you will be paying the spread for instant fills with the market order, which may skew your papertrading results

sammybea · Jan 30, 2003

i would have to say papertrading the es is very similar to real trading unless you are an emotional wreck.

dbphoenix · Jan 30, 2003

Quote from jay567:

sorry... i mean that you will be paying the spread for instant fills with the market order, which may skew your papertrading results

Why use a market order?

--Db

jpomerenke · Jan 30, 2003

I would say that 4-8 points isnt very easy always...i mean look at the range we are having today....but just worry about consistancy and capital preservation first....then worry about bigger profits...

Jayford · Jan 30, 2003

Quote from sammybea:

i would have to say papertrading the es is very similar to real trading unless you are an emotional wreck.

I totally disagree.

The psychological aspect is probably something like 90% of the game. Even system traders don't do as well in real life because they tend to second guess their systems with real money on the line.

If you have done as well in real trading as paper trading, then you are the first I've ever heard of where this so.

Cheers,
Jay

dbphoenix · Jan 30, 2003

Quote from Jayford:

The psychological aspect is probably something like 90% of the game. Even system traders don't do as well in real life because they tend to second guess their systems with real money on the line.

But the problem there lies with the trader, not with papertrading per se. If done properly, papertrading can come sufficiently close to matching the real thing.

The phenomenon of second-guessing the system may have less to do with the money than with the conviction that one is smarter than the system.

--Db

Jayford · Jan 30, 2003

Everyone who paper trades before switching to real trading made money in the paper phase (or else why would they switch). How many then make money in the real world? Not many as a percentage.

I believe paper trading is only valuable in learning the mechanics and structure of markets, not in actual trading.

Jay