Which Trading Environment Would You Choose To Hone Your Skills In?

Trade with real money. Start by only allowing yourself to trade a max of, say, 10% of your capital. You can't simulate a position going against you and your money is just evaporating. You can't simulate a trade really working then trying to figure out how the hell to maximize your profits. If you can't make money trading with 10%, you are probably aren't going to make money trading 100%.
 
i think the op should sell-off ALL his possessions, everything including house, or
move out of the rental, ask a buddy if he can stay in his place and sleep on the
couch, deposit ALL the money into a trading account, trade with it and see if that
'environment' hones his skills
 
Quote from bigfurrymonster:

I highly recommend demo trading to all my friends who want to start trading.
Why the rush to start trading? The market won't disappear next year. I tell them if you can't make money on demo, how do you expect to make money on a live account!
If I gave you a plane and told you to that you can fly it whenever you want, would you immediately jump in or would you first train on a flight simulator?
If you believe that you need pressure/adrenaline rush to learn trading, it probably means that you are trading for the wrong reasons.
When should you stop demo trading? If you do it seriously and with discipline you will know when you are ready.
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I agree with most of what you said here, but your point between a flight simulator or jumping right in is missing another option. Personally, I would sit next to an instructor in the plane (be IN the environment and feel it which you wont feel in a flight simulator, nor a demo accuont) and then slowly work myself into flying more and more with the instructors hands off the stick. Flight Simulators have their uses, as do demo accounts.. but its quite limited and is literally like jumping over a chasm compared to live trading.
 
Quote from rogueRED:



* this is a US and UK patent-pending method with a lot more explanation, but for this purpose I am just looking for professional trader feedback.
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whats your patent application number?

btw, it's illegal to say "patent pending" when no patent application has been filed. :eek:
 
I believe everyone should start trading with a demo account:

1 - Learn the mechanics of your software, so that you don`t mess up anything on your first day of trading.

2 - Test your system and trade it like it were LIVE. Trade like it`s real money. Use stops as defined by your trading plan and use the same number of contracts/shares.

3 - If you consistently earn sim bucks at this point and have excess capital to waste, go live with minimum size.

4 - Go back to sim if you see significant drawdown. Rewrite your trading plan, find out what went wrong, what you did good, if you have psychological issues, etc.

The bottom line is that if you can`t earn money on a simulator, you will never be able to do it with live trading.

Personally, I feel that I started trading live too early (and I had been doing some sim trading as well).

NinjaTrader offers excellent simulation and from my experience, the fills seem to be quite realistic.

Regards,

Laissez Faire
 
Quote from Laissez Faire:

I believe everyone should start trading with a demo account:

1 - Learn the mechanics of your software, so that you don`t mess up anything on your first day of trading.

2 - Test your system and trade it like it were LIVE. Trade like it`s real money. Use stops as defined by your trading plan and use the same number of contracts/shares.

3 - If you consistently earn sim bucks at this point and have excess capital to waste, go live with minimum size.

4 - Go back to sim if you see significant drawdown. Rewrite your trading plan, find out what went wrong, what you did good, if you have psychological issues, etc.

The bottom line is that if you can`t earn money on a simulator, you will never be able to do it with live trading.

Personally, I feel that I started trading live too early (and I had been doing some sim trading as well).

NinjaTrader offers excellent simulation and from my experience, the fills seem to be quite realistic.

Regards,

Laissez Faire
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Great points, but I believe you are missing a few items. Consider the following. I would love your thoughts.

1- agree with you.

2- you said "trade like its real money". This almost never happens unless you FEEL it and can make rational decision even when you feel it. You cant feel it in a demo account, therefore you cant trade like its real money.

3- i'll leave this one alone.

4 - this makes sense, but again you're just going to go back to a demo account where there is NO emotional attachment to any decision you make. How is that helping you?

If someone is just system trading and only making an algo that trades for them (or dare I say buys one on the net), thats fine and not the purpose here. If you are a discretionary trader, going back to your demo account has a purpose, but it has its severe drawbacks as well.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
Quote from rogueRED:

Great points, but I believe you are missing a few items. Consider the following. I would love your thoughts.

1- agree with you.

2- you said "trade like its real money". This almost never happens unless you FEEL it and can make rational decision even when you feel it. You cant feel it in a demo account, therefore you cant trade like its real money.

3- i'll leave this one alone.

4 - this makes sense, but again you're just going to go back to a demo account where there is NO emotional attachment to any decision you make. How is that helping you?

If someone is just system trading and only making an algo that trades for them (or dare I say buys one on the net), thats fine and not the purpose here. If you are a discretionary trader, going back to your demo account has a purpose, but it has its severe drawbacks as well.

Thanks for your thoughts.
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Well, it depends on the reason for your drawdown :)

I believe that many traders believe they have an edge, when they in truth do not have one. When the trader starts trading live and loses money, it is tempting to find psychological causes.

What if you did not have an edge in the first place? Maybe you just were lucky? With a short sample size, that is not unlikely, not matter what results you have achieved.

Personally, I am at times so focused and into my sim trading that I feel emotions almost like with live trading. I honor my stops 100% and am VERY selective with my trades. I trade for points, not dollars. That helps my focus.

Sim trading will never replace live trading, much because of the reasons you mentioned, but if used correctly it can be a great tool that will save you lots of money in the learning phase.

I do however not see the purpose of trading a demo account for a very long time.

What do you think? :)
 
Regardless of which account you trade, demo or not, you can't make money unless you have a sound trading strategy to begin with. If you did, then obviously there's no need to trade demo account.

Just my worthless 2-cents.
 
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