How long would you demo trade a new strategy for?

How long would you trade a new strategy for before putting it to work?
Specific things I’m looking for in a strategy that I want to have experienced in demo before using are:

  • successful entries plus exits
  • looking for ways to increase efficiency of entry into trade
  • failed trades and what to look out for VERY IMPORTANT

That’s why I’m trying to give myself some rules. It’s all too easy to to make a few good trades and then tell yourself “Job done, this thing is the nuts and will make me millions”. You rack up the lots on your first trade and the *@#& hits the fan :slight_smile:
However, I think 6 months would be a bit long but if you already have some methods in use that are making money then I guess it’s not so bad. I just want to try out some other sin demo so I have a collection of methods that I can use in case of changes to market conditions, etc.

100 trades sounds about right. I’m a backtester too but the great difficulty with some methods particularly those that involve some use of indicators is that with hindsight you can see every positive trade. When it comes to using it and you can’t see the bars to the right, it;s a whole different story :slight_smile:

Join us on this thread for a while if you want: 301 Moved Permanently

Just getting started.

i don’t know why, but for me i can’t do demo. whenever i try new things i’ll open a new live account with $100-$200 and trade it there. somehow trading with real money, no matter the amount makes me care a lot more.

This is my experience: first of all I see what would happen with my strategy in the past, opening MT4 chart and looking for previous years. Once I found that the strategy might work, I try it for a year in a demo account. I’m currently testing 3 strategies using this method and, just like you, I try to fix it as time goes by :slight_smile:
By the way, interesting question :wink:
Curious to see the other answers, good luck :57: