the FAQs on babypips recommends 2 consecutive months of positive demo trading before opening a live account. is that really when you know you are ready to trade live? it seems that there are still so many things that could go wrong…
when did you know it was time to go live?
I wasn’t ready when I started a live account. Of course I “THOUGHT” I was ready (I am naturally quite timid so maybe my emotions were blown out of proportion:o). Once you begin the emotions take over and that separates the determined from the ones who just want a quick buck. I will say this though, it is not until you begin real trading that you actually truely learn to trade. Once you lose “real” money you focus, study, read, develop your system, and yourself emotionally. No one I think is ever ready to trade live. Sure developing your system and making consistent profits in demo help give you a base, but with no emotions present it is impossible to move into the professional zone. Take hockey (cuz I’m Canadian:D) when you play pond hockey, you just mess around but you still try, but it isn’t until you play in an actual league that you push yourself and excel (as in any sport). The same goes for trading. It is stated in Reminiscence of a Stock Operator as an example where a archer says to a man “I can break the stem of a wine glass in two eight times out of ten”. The man unimpressed says “that’s great but can you do it with the glass pointing a gun at you.” Anyways just my thoughts, not written in stone! I’m not saying this to discourage you, but rather prepare and encourage. Once you begin live, you can start to make the real transition to truely succeed. Of course it depends on how much time and effort comes along with it.
Best to all,
Stay Cool Eh, Take it easy!
Demo trading and live trading are not the same thing. I have never demo traded. The only way to learn is to trade live. So the best way to start IMO, is to trade live with a small account size (mini, micro).
i know y’all are not insulting me… i wanted the truth, and that is why i asked.
i knew about the difference between demo and live trading, but i dont know what it feels like, and honestly i dont know how to deal with it since i have never traded live.
is there a time that you feel like everything has come together and it is time to go live?
To be honest I just jumped in. I didn’t even have a system, only $300, I know, I know its blasphemy! So I lost half the account in no time. hahaha … Best thing that could have happened!! Why? I buckled down developed a system, tested on demo, then went back to trading. Alright, I’ll give you an example of what it feels like. When you lose, it’s like losing a sports game, doing bad on a test, etc. Winning is the opposite (winning a game acing a test, etc.). You may say, it’s not that bad but we are talking games and tests that mean alot to you ( slightly more amplified, but same feeling). Right when you enter a trade you will get butterflies in your stomach, like just before a game race, test starts. It hurts even more when there are consecutive losses. Think about failing half way through a semester and only the final can help you or being in the final game of the tournament, things like this take your discipline away. You get nervous and instead of using the system you don’t take the system’s signal or enter arbitrarily. DON’T!!! I cannot stress this enough. I’m telling you, get this, I had a long string of losses, and as I took my signal the next time, it hit my stop and made a HUGE move. I was so upset, I just said forget this, and when the next signal came, I missed it, another HUGE move. Well, Things like this happen to you if you don’t follow your system. Oh and one last thing, you know those places that promise a certain amount of pips per week/month do not follow them. I tried, they only steer you away from your goal. Your only piggybacking on other’s success (if they work) but most don’t work. That is how I lost half my account to start with.
Anyways best to you, and I hope this helps. Sorry for the lengthy post!
Stay Cool, Take it Easy!!
The reason I posted the thread [U]Where are you?[/U] is because I went threw it on a demo. Thinking I was ready for live trading, I did go live. I started with $500.00. Overnight I make $2,200.00. Over the course of a week I lost the whole thing. Trading demos was the most boring thing I had to do so I must have been ready for a live account. I did start over on level three… That sucked bad. Looking back it was a blast. I lost more than $4,000.00 total. I have it all back and much more. If you are on level five on a demo, then you could very well be ready to go live. Only you will know. 
When I asked “am I ready to go live?”, I now know I was not.
When I said “I think I’m ready to go live.”, I now know I was not.
When I was sure live was for me, I had already lost all that money.
Good luck on what ever you decide. Just don’t stop demo trading even when you do go live.
Hang in there, you will do well.
thank you for providing information on your experiences. it seems the best thing is to start with 250$ or so.
did you guys self-learn forex? OR did someone introduce you to forex?
halo:
I took a short course that was well balanced. The person
teaching it was making a living at trading. However, because
trading is as individual as the person, his system did not work
for me - emotionally. Successful traders will tell you that you
have to develop your own system to accomodate your
strengths/weaknesses. Stick to the rules you will make with
your system and continue to educate yourself because Forex is an
ongoing learning process that never ends.
I agree with this. I read an ebook called, “Bird Watching in Lion Country”, and it also recommended people develop their own system.
I cannot agree with you that demo trading and live trading is not one and the same. Perhaps on the platform you’ve traded there was a difference, but essentially the only difference is that in demotrading you are not using real money, but other than that you get the same feels for a real market action.
I’m not sure I understand the point of “don’t trade live - you’ll lose all your money”. I’m not saying open account with $100,000 and lose all of that, however you have to know that education costs money. When you buying book for 100$ you don�t say you waste the money, because you’re gonna increase your knowledge by reading the information in that book. The same is here - you have to pay to learn, even if you’re saying you loose 100$, the thing you get is the knowledge, real market feel, basic experience, etc, because you’re risking and playing with real money. This is about education not few hundred $ that you’re gonna lose
well I see your point trinat, but I think the trader places themselves at a disadvantage by investing less than 1000. Mini accounts almost always get margin calls. Trading Forex is not like trading the stock market. Movements are bigger and I have a sinking feeling that no matter how many demo accounts I opened my three hundred dollars would be sacrificed.
There are brokers where you can specify your lot size without a minimum.
The difference of using real money is all the reason in the world that demo trading will never really rival a real account in learning everything there is to know about trading.
Demo accounts certainly have their functions: get familiar with a broker’s platform, back testing strategies, honing your entry and exit skills, etc.
You’ll often find that there can be differences between a broker’s demo and real accounts that you never find out about until you start to trade live.
Some examples are the crappy (or at least in the past) demo servers that CMS have had, while their live ones are generally fine, and the way that the spread widens before news announcements on Oanda’s FXTrade platform but not their FXGame one.
Demo accounts have their uses, so find out what they are and avail of them to that extent.
If you plan on opening a live account with a substantial amount of money, you would do well to start off by opening a micro account with just 5% or 10% of your planned overall capital and start small to appreciate the difference that trading real money brings to the game.
Don’t look at that initial 5% or 10% as money to be burned learning how to trade. Do everything you can to not lose that money. Make preserving your trading capital your number one objective.
I am self taught. I started with the red and green line. That was a little profitable but not much. I just kept asking myself questions after every mistake. The more I asked the more I learned.
In the beginning I traded a demo, then a live account. OOps! Then I traded a demo, then a live account. OOps! Them I traded a demo, then a live account. OOps! Then I traded a demo, then a live account. OOps!
Now my live account is doing very well and I still trade demos.