I can agree with the rest. I’ve never demo-ed in my life. Just start with a couple hundred bucks; it’s not like they’re telling you to put your life savings into your first trading account. If you can’t even afford that, it probably means that now is not the best time to start this business.
Yes, some people start out with a demo account, but I could never take it seriously since nothing was on the line. It doesn’t teach anything about emotions. Live trading, albeit penny lots, punishes you for mistakes not only on a monetary level, but I find that it’s not about the monetary level. It’s more punishing on a psychological level (pride, ego) which is a great way for beginning traders to get used to and accept since losses happen, no matter how successful you are.
There’s two sides to it, obviously, some people do better one way over another. At the end of it, it comes down to personal preference and that was mine.
I am learning and catching fun in here. i started 2008 with demo and tried to learn and practice my system and strategy although i tried to be committed but the emotion was not really there but by the time i went live thinking i had learnt how to trade i blew it last the account.
I learnt the hard way that live account is differently affecting and demanding on the trader than sitting with demo.
after really practicing then i turned a $489 to $2890 in two weeks. later i took time out to focus on other important things but just return now and with the confidence that i had built before i only put $30 in my live account and graduallying building it up.
like a trade in Eurjpy on 30/04/2013 from 128.00 to 127.30 trading 0.01, i made 70 pips with monetary gain at $7.
Everyone i train open live account right away with very little money that will not affect them if lost.
My conclusion is to practice with live account if truely you want to trade forex profitably.
i am enjoying the discussion on this forum. New to this Forum.
What can you learn on demo trading that you can’t learn from live trading? Ask that the other way around & “real mon£y psychology” is the answer.
My earlier posts state that demo is to familiarise yourself with trading, it has it’s purposes (how to read charts, draw S/R & place trades & orders etc) but after that, I believe going live is the way to go - it may be right or it may be wrong but it’s my opinion.
Going to the jumping in a car without lessons analogy: so you get a car & you go to a big empty car park to learn the basics, do you then drive around that car park for a year just to make sure that you’ve got this driving malarky down because you don’t want to have a crash? No you don’t, you get out on the real road & learn in the real world. Same goes for trading, you lean the ropes & then you should get your feet wet. Blowing an account is a risk of going live but so is crashing a car on a proper road when you’re learning to drive. There’s risk to everything that we do, it’s how it’s managed that counts.
Nobody is telling OP to slap his 10k in a live account & just crack on with it - that would just be crazy & stupid. We’re talking $100. Call it a 1% risk (or even 0.5% being new to the game) & that’s at most a $1 loss if the trade goes wrong. Assuming that you’re not going crazy with the amount of trades & trying to scalp (which I wouldn’t advice a newbie to try), then who can’t afford to lose a few trades in the name of learning. With proper MM, which I’ve repeatedly emphasised, that $100 should last a considerable amount of trades.
Hell, I fritter away more than $1 in the vending machine at work just because I’m bored & could use a pick-me up; losing it in the name of learning & bettering yourself is more justifiable. Again, this is merely my opinion (& people might not like it) but if somebody can’t afford to lose $100 at any point then FX probably isn’t for them.
I started with a small live account, it’s all still there plus some so it clearly hasn’t done me any harm. Not just in terms of this demo/live debate but I think the world is molly-coddled enough as it is, it’s just a nanny state trying to wrap everyone in bandages with political correctness & ridiculous health & safety & warning advice etc.
Whether it be trading, driving or whatever, the best way to learn something is by doing it!
I think everyone is different and you may like your approach which is ok for you, I would disagree. I think this thread is good for the OP to make own decision and not listen to anyone else.
Like I said before. The lesson learned from trading live right away is that you need to focus on building your strategy because you don’t know what you’re doing. You can learn this by just knowing it, here I’ll say it…“whooo im the mysterious live trading inner voice, you must take a step back young grasshopper and focus on building your strategy. Respect the market and stop trying to guess what will happen next…” There now you can focus more on building your strategy and less on trading. If anything trading right away is what will mess with your head not the other way around.
Why would anyone trade without having developed a strategy. The answer is arrogance.
I love how this thread on backtesting has become a heated debate on live vs demo haha.
I thank all who have posted for their advice and both sides make good points. I might use demo first to check out the platform but I will probably go live soon with only a few hundred bucks and with a 1% risk maximum It would take many losses to blow the account and even If i did blow it I wouldn’t care. It would be worth it for the sake of learning.
But getting back to the thread topic, does anyone have any advice on building a trading strategy? I read the section in the babypips school on trading systems and the examples were simple and didn’t mention anything about fundamental analysis just technical.
I’m experimenting, trying to build a trading plan in a team oriented way. Don’t know how it will work but I think we can make it happen. Let me know and I’ll get you in on the weekly meetings.
If you’re looking for a way to backtest a discretionary and/or news based strategy, the only way is to test it visually.
If you’re looking to test automated, mechanical strategies then Codemeister’s original reply (my thread) is more than enough if you’re just starting out.
[QUOTE=“atrwilder;486555”]I’m experimenting, trying to build a trading plan in a team oriented way. Don’t know how it will work but I think we can make it happen. Let me know and I’ll get you in on the weekly meetings.[/QUOTE]
This is a little humorous now. So now, you’re attempting to make a “trading team”? Reminds me of the Avengers…
I might be interested. I definitely don’t have anything to offer the group but It would probably help me. I will PM you about it when I finally get the ability to PM (which will hopefully be soon) haha.
Surprise! Um not really it’s been documented that I’m starting a group for almost a month now. It’s ok I forgive you. Don’t worry Clark, you’re in too as long as you drop the superiority complex 301 Moved Permanently
