Demo and Live Trading

Hey

Is demo trading exactly the same as trading live? Is there any difference what so ever? Im not talking about feeling more afraid as theres real money on the line. But is the profit you make etc on the demo exactly the same as live trading? Currently im using MT4 with AC-Markets and im making easily over 100 pips per day. Can someone please help and clarify.

:smiley:

Are your 100 pips a day coming in large chunks, or are you using large lot sizes, and getting just a few pips at a time?

If you are getting gains at the 20 pip and up size, thereā€™s virtually no difference. If you are trading 30 lots, and getting 3 pips, and selling out, there is a tremendous difference.

Slippage becomes a big issue on those large lot sized, small pip gain trades.

The more volatile the market in the sense of quick moves, the more slippage becomes an issue.

Yes im gaining them in large chunks. I usually know where the market is heading when its gonna fall or rise. Sometimes i tend to get alot more profit from smaller lot sizes and not as much with larger lots. I never make a few pips and sell out.

Let me guessā€¦you donā€™t use stops?

nope, why is that good or bad? Iā€™ve never had to use them as iā€™ve never suffered a huge loss ever before.

Please stop trading and read through the Babypips School! If you are trading without stops then you arenā€™t trading, youā€™re gambling!

Iā€™ve never had to use the insurance on my house, since Iā€™ve never had a fire/flood/tree fall on it or anything else before. So by your logic the insurance is useless, right??

Iā€™m not trying to pick on you, Iā€™m just trying to show you that youā€™re flirting with disaster! If you are trading without stops you will lose all your money in a few weeks or months. And I mean that literally. You [B]WILL[/B] lose [B]ALL[/B] your money!

The markets are the markets whether demo or live it is just your psyche which changes, 50% of trade account on one trade going through the floor, brown trouser time I think. :smiley:

Learn to trade, not gamble.

yeah sorry to say it is rather bad. one of the baddest things u can do in trading.

There is always a difference between live and demo trading.
for example slippages, spreads, speed of excecution.
It depends on your broker if they concentrate themselves on having a great demo platform you wonā€™t experience these type of problems.

Thanks for all the advice guys, but iā€™ve been trading for almost a month now, and i have never suffered a loss. In my mind im not gambling as i do not just make trades based on luck, but instead i carry out a full technical analysis, analyse the current market situation and only then place trades. I know when the market will fall or rise therefore i dont need stops. I can easily make 20% of my total in a day if i like. But hey im only a beginner ive got alot to learn and a long way to go.

You certainly are a beginner indeed. :wink:

And a very arrogant one at that. :mad:

You obviously think you know everything and need no advice from us experienced traders.

[B]Phil838, Honorary FX Member[/B] and others have clearly explained the need for a stop loss.
[B]You deserve to lose[/B]ā€¦and quite frankly, [B]I hope you do.[/B]

[B]I hope you lose everything - and very quickly. [/B]
That is the only way to teach people like you.
Arrogant people who claim knowledge when they really know nothing, need to go thro the school of hard knocks.
When you have lost everything you may just be humbled and come back and tell us that you were wrong!!

As the highest rating poster on this forum I know the statistics.

I give you 3 months on this forum before you are gone. :frowning:

And all I can say to that is - [B]tough!![/B] :stuck_out_tongue:

With all due respect, i certainly respect and will remember youā€™re words as im just a beginner and as of you being a well experianced trader i will need all the adivce and help i can get. Maybe i am wrong in not using stops and maybe one day i will loose everything iā€™ve made. But this will only make me work harder towards my goal for the passion and determination of the forex market. Im not walking blindly but learning along the way with any possible options. But i do promise 3 months from now i will share with you either my short term success or a devastating loss. :slight_smile:

Without a stoploss in every trade, you will share a devastating loss!! :frowning:

And what will you do then?

[B]Eat some humble pie and take our advice now[/B] - we have been there, done that, and we are not stupid!! :wink:

Iā€™m afraid heā€™s right. You need some way of controlling losses. Losses (and your emotions) are about the only thing you can control, so you might as well do so.

You may do amazingly well over the short term, or even over the long term, just by random chance, but if your going to rely on just on luck, you might as well try a casino. At least thereā€™s entertainment and the drinks are free.

Try not to consider a loss as a sign that you where wrong, some trades win, some lose, and luck is an element but its how you manage the trades as these scenarios play out thats the trick. If you stick at this long enough youā€™ll realise that the majority of good trades go in your favour right from the start, they rarely move very far against you. The very bad trades do the opposite, they move against you, and they keep on going and they dont come back !. As your as likely to get a bad trade as a good trade, it just makes sense to cut losses.

Try to think of stop losses as the equivelent to red lights at road junctions. If your in a hurry you could probably drive through every red light, but its unlikely youā€™ll get to your destination any quicker, the chances are youā€™ll probably end up dead !

The other thing to seriously consider is to try to understand why it is that you are worried about losing trades. There might be some psychological issues that need to be resolved.

Well thanks for the adivce i really do appretiate it :slight_smile:

those guys helped you out a lot by saying you need to use stops, its essential for the survival of any trader! its good advice and please donā€™t go against it, were trying to save you from complete disaster mate! nobody can predict where the market will go and not even the best technical analysis will save you, markets change every time and stops just protect you if the trade goes against you :slight_smile: some of those traders learnt the hard way and now they have learnt their lesson, this is good advice mate, use stops :slight_smile:
the more experience you have, the better feel for trading you get, so keep learning :smiley:
all the best

If I had a dollar for every time a new trader said that on these forums I could stop trading and retire!

If youā€™re not going to believe that you need to use a stop then at least demo trade for 6 months before you go live. By that time you will blow your demo account and see weā€™re right, but at least you wonā€™t lose any money!

Iā€™m not saying stops are useless and that i will never use them. I know a reasonable amount on stops and exactly how to use them. And i will definately have to use them at some point if not sooner or later.

But i would just like to know, as one member pointed out "stops are nessesary for every tradeā€™ then why is it having traded on a demo account for over a month now i have not yet made a single loss and most of my trades are around 100 pips? And these are all without ā€˜stopsā€™ Iā€™m assuming it might just be luck? :confused:

Also im not going against any adivce, as it will only help me in the future.:slight_smile:

The point is you could find your trade at the top or bottom of a long term turning point and then youā€™re done. Iā€™m not sure if you also realize this, but your broker will not allow you to get to negative, so once you are down to 0, your trade will automatically close and all will be lost.

What I donā€™t seem to understand is how you keep saying you want to learn, yet you donā€™t appear to be learning. It is completely up to you what you want to do with your money. If you want to gamble it, then go for it, but donā€™t call it trading. On second thought, call it what you want because frankly it doesnā€™t really matter.

As phil suggested, keep demoing a while longer to see what happens. Hey, maybe you are doing something different than the 1000ā€™s of traders are doing. I seriously doubt that you have stumbled onto anything special though. All I can say is donā€™t delude yourself. Good luck.

What if a random T-Rex assaults your computer?

What if a giant chunk of space poopy wipes out your internet connection?

What if Chuck Norris kills your power company?

There are things beyond your control that can, and WILL eventually destroy your account.

Stops will prevent this from occurring.

There are several people on here, that advocate what they commonly call an ā€œoh crap!ā€ stop. Put one on EVERY trade. I am solidly in that camp as well. Move it far, far away, so it will feel like they arenā€™t there, but DO put them in place.

ESPECIALLY on a live account.

But do it on demo too, as itā€™s a rehearsal for the real McCoy.

Best to build good habits, and have them ingrained solidly.