Paper trading
Paper trading is practice trading with fake money. You place the same trades in a simulator at live prices and watch what they would have done.
In depth
A simulator gives you a balance that is not real. You buy and sell at market prices, and the account keeps score. It is the cheapest way to learn the buttons and the order types. You also find out whether a setup does what you think.
The gap is the money. Fills are friendly, and no simulator can make you feel a 400 dollar loss. Traders who print months of paper profits often trade worse on day one. A fair compromise is to practise the mechanics on paper. Then go live with the smallest size you can trade.
Why it matters
Learning on real money is expensive, and the first mistakes are usually mechanical. Wrong order type, wrong size, wrong contract. Practice takes those out for free. The risk runs the other way too. Months on a simulator can build a confidence that real money removes in a week.
Simulator fills do not import, so log the practice yourself. Write the day up in your journal entry and keep the five-item checklist. The habit is then in place before the money is real. Once you go live, Schwab and IBKR fills import on their own.
Frequently asked questions
Long enough to follow your plan without checking it, often a few weeks. Then go live small.
Partly. The mechanics carry, the discipline does not. Expect worse fills and worse decisions with real money on the line.
Keep your Paper trading trades on the record in TraderLog
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