Quote from tom123:
I hope my comments can help a little. Ive been in a similar place this year. I'm right there at that transition point youre talking about....making the crossover from paper trading to real money.... and its been strangely difficult. for many reasons. many of them psychological, as others mentioned. Ive been studying for about 7 months. thats not a long time by experts standards. but 12 hours a day, as fast and furious and thoughtful as I can.... I got myself to this point. focused 100 % of my time (not working to supplement income yet)... Ive gone thru stages of skill development I never realized, there were such levels of skill ... the difference between what I know now, versus 1 month ago is like the difference between kindergarten and college grad... what I thought I knew a month ago, when I thought I was ready to trade with real money, because I was turning 50 pips profit a day in paper trading.... somehow didnt translate to the same success when I went to real money trading. and in the first month of real money trading, I lost 800 dollars. thats alot of money to lose.... the 'cost' of my real education in forex.
Now , I'm at the stage where I break even every day....a good step forward.
and the difference between breaking even and making great profits... I can tell you ... is often a matter of missing an entry timing by 10 seconds.... !! after establishing a great set up,understanding all the indicators, all the time frames, all the candlesticks...and just about ready to pull the trigger.... my inexperience still makes me hesitate sometimes....and then the rocket ship blasts off , exactly as I expected....and I lost another good trade, to fear, inexperience, and hesitation. this is where I'm at now, after 7 months of intensive training.
all this, saying, just to give you an idea of what its like in this 'transition phase'... I dont do much back testing. I focused instead on perfecting my understanding of the indicator tools I use, trendline construction, candlestick analysis, CCI, and just hours and hours of screen time.
whats frustrating now, is that I'm at the limit of loss I allowed myself before I said I wont risk any more loss.... so now, the last 2 weeks... Ive been doing this really brilliant rookie mistake.... setting my stop loss too tight...(4 pips ...(ridiculous !?!)...and 80 % of the time get stopped out for loss.... and then,of course, watch the trade go my expected way, for the 10 pip ride that I should have had. and instead I lose 5 bucks a pop. after 2 weeks of that...Ive lost another 75 dollars. explaining this now, might inspire me to take my skull and bang it into the nearest wall to whack some sense into my head, and realize that you cant trade successfully when you place your stop losses at 4 pips. duh.
and so, on it goes.
So, I forget the questions you posed ,sorry for that, but I hope some of my own experience might offer you some sense of what it can be like.
when I was paper trading I was trading agressively,intraday, and making 300 dollars a day in fake money. now, with real money.... I'm just about breaking even, and ready to turn the corner. I will be thrilled to make 30 pips profit in a day.
I know I will master the game some day.and I'm getting there. but it takes tremendous hours of screen time, and patience, and driving desire to focus your whole mind on the learning process. its like becoming a black belt in a martial art. or mastering any skill or sport. it cant possibly be achieved in one summer vacation from college.
Before I got into forex. I read the posts of experts here who all said it will take at least a year to learn the forex. I said to myself, no, I will get good at it in 3 or 4 months.
Now, I understand, they are right. and I'll be lucky if it only takes me a year.
it can take a whole week, just to get used to the shock of losing real money for the first time. then overcoming the pain of seeing your first 100 dollars go down the drain. then, hopefully you learn to stop the madness before you lose everything. and get back to paper trading for a while, etc...and then ,with patience, see how you learn one step forward , one step back...and it just takes alot of time to develop the skills.
hope my thoughts are helpful to your perspective.
... welcome to mini-pikerville, a place that I didn't even know existed! :eek: 
If you want a free room you can check out look into #Mainstreet on othernet. Toni does a great job, and it is and will remain free as far as I know. I'm in there from time to time as my health and time allow.