I let him think that he’s the last bear by disguising myself as a human, a hairy human but a human none the less.
There’s the bullish version too, I was planning on alternating. They’re by a guy called Yago Partal & they’re known as Zoo Portraits, he does all sorts of animals, the link below will show you a good few of them. I think that they’re awesome!
Bull or bear eh? Indeed the portraits are awesome, can’t wait for my son’s reaction when I show them to him!
There’s a big difference between a demo and live account, in the latter you need discipline and only trade money that you don’t need.
I sent you my email in your visitor messages. I couldn’t find a PM function. I don’t know if it exists on this forum or if it isn’t available to me because i have under a certain number of posts.
I know nothing about backtests. still learning!
can someone teach me?
Lol, it is 
It is due to posts, the function will become available to you as you have more posts. Your e-mail has been removed, when you have the ability to e-mail me, feel free to do so.
Will do. On a lot of forums it’s 50 posts.
you have 2 have 20 or more posts.
There are people on here suggesting that someone completely new to trading open a live account. Then they insinuate that anyone that is against this point of view is not successful. I really hope you use some common sense and ignore such advice. You are new to this so you must get familiar with the market and yourself, a demo account is perfect for this. You don’t have to trade it, just use it for the historical charts.
The people recommending you get a live account right away probably opened a demo account themselves, made the mistake of trading it immediately without knowing what they are doing. Then they maybe made some money and thought they could start a live account and the streak would continue. You don’t have to listen to me but trust your initial instinct to ignore these individuals. The lessons they are referring to will come later when you eventually do open a live account.
As for backtesting, I recommend you get to know how price moves just visually. Examine historical price data and try to narrate what price was doing as if it were real time and why it may have done so. It is better to backtest a strategy visually. You can eventually use software like Multicharts to automate the backtesting for you, but don’t jump to that right away. Get to know price behavior, train your eyes to backtest on their own. If your instincts are telling you that this makes sense then check out my thread, join the conversation.
The demo/live argument is on going, which is why in my first post I state:
[QUOTE=“baz1982;484564”]These are just my opinions & you are entitled to your own[/QUOTE]
There is no right or wrong answer - just like trading strategies & timeframes etc. it all comes down to personal preference. My personal preference just happened to be going live with the reasons I justified earlier.
You’ll get different answers from different people. Some will say demo until for 3-months, some will say demo for a year or demo until you’re profitable, where as others (the group I’m in) will say go live.
Nobody is forcing OP to do anything, it’s his responsibility to gather up all the information & opinions & choose what he believes to be right for him.
I downloaded MT4 from Oanda without being logged in to my account so technically you could watch the charts & visually backtest without having a live or demo account. As I said, it’s OP’s call & he has to look at the pros & cons of both demo & live. People will say the pro of demo is that you won’t lose money but then you get hit with the same con of that you won’t make mon£y. It could be argued all day (which I’m not going to do). Demo or live: use good mon£y management & a SL.
A completely new trader needs to get familiar with the mechanics of placing trades, price behavior, intermarket relationships and so on. The reasons for going demo first are obvious, its common sense.
It is not common sense. You may have done so, most follow suit. There are a number of (successful) traders who simply disagree. You can’t learn how to trade in a demo account, it is as simple as that. As a new trader, everyone has the choice to decide if they want to learn how to trade or to mess around in a demo account and lose their time.
Are you one of those (successful) traders? :54:
Actually, if you take it from the perspective of the various brokerage firms, you would probably realize that demo accounts are there for new potential traders to get accustomed to the mechanics of the software packages that each firm offers.
They are not there for people to “practice” trading but rather to get people familiar with the software packages. Once you get familiar with and happy with the software, you are probably less likely to switch to another firm, having already invested time in learning to use the software. And you would probably open a live account with them once you are ready.
It’s just a marketing strategy. That’s all.
So using demo accounts to learn to trade is just a by product of that marketing strategy. So I guess the question of whether you should demo trade or open a live account is moot.
Cheers
Haz
I also believe the ‘demo’ account does not provide you the correct emotional attention a trade should take, however, I do real-time demo trades using ThinkorSwim during testing…
Of course its different but this guy is brand new to trading. Telling him to open a live account immediately because it’s not the same psychologically is misleading to say the least. OP I recommend you spend at least a year learning the mechanics behind placing a trade, how money works on a global scale, and developing a comprehensive trading strategy. All this before ever placing a real trade. Once you’ve got a feel for what type of trader you will be, then start trading live and getting to know your mental makeup. That’s when its best to start breaking psychological barriers, once you have a methodology, not before. Im here if you need some guidance during your developmental stage.
The myth that you learn “BIG” lessons if you start trading live immediately is bogus. Let me save you the trouble, the “BIG” lesson is… LOOK YOU JUST LOST REAL MONEY BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING, SLOW DOWN. My point being that trading is a progressive learning experience. Baby steps, critical and independent thinking are a must.
I think your spot on with your comments atrwilder.these people are bonkers to suggest going live when you dont have a clue what your doing,do you think perhaps when they got a car for the first time they just hopped in and thought "hell I dont need leasons"you do have to wonder dont you mate! good on you .If you cant get anywhere on a demo would you get on any better with a live account?beats the hell out of me ,I think theyve got their head up there backsides,spose they.ll bleat about this artwilder but who cares ,we know we.re right.