I would like to know when you’ve got the skills and confidence to trade for real. when you’re not just guessing but actually ready to handle wins and losses without freaking out.
Generally I would say after someone has Learned all the component part of their strategy. Back tested the strategy. Forward tested strategy on demo.(meaning Trade a demo account with your criteria for 4 months) Get to a place where consistent with your trades profitable. Profit targets will vary. (2-3% month example)
a) IF don’t make profit. Review trades, try get feedback from expert etc. go back to back testing strategy. follow above process.
b) IF do make profit. Forward test strategy on a live-account. Try to replicate what you did in demo for 4 months as an example. Make consistent growth each month.
Just my opinion to building a good foundation. Then we all have different goals some may want to make small profits each month on live account or perhaps built confidence in doing something similar to process above and now want to do a prop firm challenge. Potentially using funds to build live account up etc. Every one wants to make money however people have to master the strategy first.
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I suggest that a number of trades is at least as important as an amount of time.
An opening range breakout strategy with a trade sometimes filled, sometimes not, may have few trades. A strategy traded on five-minute charts probably has very many.
One achieves statistical significance far more easily than the other.
I think it’s not a very helpful parameter for judging this question.
Examples: a strategy that makes +0.5% one month, +3.5% the next, +1.5% the third month, over 150 trades total, biggest drawdown of 0.2% may be pretty safe; a strategy that makes +3.5% over each of three months, over 60 trades total, biggest drawdown of 15-20%, may be quite useless.
Avoiding drawdowns is the big and relevant issue. 
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constant gain dude! constant gain! if you can be profitable constantly, you are ready!
Quite possibly the best advice I’ve read on BabyPips 100% agree. Member of another community by any chance?
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When you’ve tested your strategies enough to see consistent results and you’ve built up the discipline to follow your plan no matter what’s happening in the market. It’s less about winning every trade and more about managing losses without losing your cool. When you stop second-guessing yourself and accept that losses are part of the game, that’s when you’ve got the confidence to play for keeps.
I’ve always stuck to 4 month demo rule myself to be consistent. It was kind of funny going on the other one and getting told of methods that I genuinely already knew had applied in my trading for years. Yet its good for beginners. Yes I am
Exactly. Thanks for a great first/second post, Shirin, and welcome to Babypips!
You’re exactly right, and for exactly the reasons you explained.
It’s both important and helpful for people to know that it’s NOT about constant profit, or necessarily about consistency. As so many different threads here, and so many experienced traders keep advising, that ultimately boils down - like so many other things - to the difference between a successful approach of risk-management rather than an unsuccessful one of profit maximisation.
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For me, the prop firm decided. I didn’t choose. I guess they switched my account from demo to live when they thought I was more likely to show profits than losses.
(I had enough money to join a prop, not enough to trade with alone.)
No matter how prepared you think you are, psychologically you will never really be prepared for a large draw-down on a live account, compared to a demo account, where there’s very little attachment. So this sentence is super relevant.
Your best bet (pun intended) is to open a small live account after you’ve had a few months’ practice on demo. Only then will practice turn to experience.
There are brokers out there who will let you trade a little as 1 unit, such as OANDA. Not sure who else as I have not actually looked around for several years. But start small and work your way up.
I’m currently testing a new strategy on a live account with Oil, using 1 unit. It is a bit of a complicated, long-term hedging strategy that would be very difficult to back test properly, so this is a great alternative. Plus, it’s fun!
Good luck!
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𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗕𝗮𝗯𝘆𝗣𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘅 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗪𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆. 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻:
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