How long on a demo account

mrbeedles posted:
I traded demo for 6 months when I first started. Went through a bunch of trading courses, gurus, potions and failures. A small account helped me to really find my style, risk tolerance and trader mindset. Trading is 90% mental. The button pushing part is pretty easy. Take your time and find a good teacher. M3RD.net

I relate to this, great advice too about having a good teacher, was a key step forward ion my trading as well.

6 months on demo - followed by 6 months on micro - followed by 12 months risk only 1% account. After that you should be pro and know what doing. If not then give up and try something else

Keep the demo account for practice

Everyone's different. Stay on demo until you're profiting consistently

AlHashim posted:
6 months on demo - followed by 6 months on micro - followed by 12 months risk only 1% account. After that you should be pro and know what doing. If not then give up and try something else

If you have that kind of a mindset you will never be successful in trading :) It's a lifelong learning pretty much, even the most experienced traders might face setbacks and therefore need to change their strategies etc.

Treeny posted:
Everyone's different. Stay on demo until you're profiting consistently

Absolutely.

OnTheEdge posted:
Demo accounts are for learning the platform, testing/backtesting, looking at charts to come up with ideas, nothing more.

Setup, your live account after you finish this 4th or 5th week, Get Everything exactly how you want it on your platform utilizing a demo AND than sign into your live account.

Trade the smallest size depending on your system, example; if you use multiple parcel close levels you could trade at .03 lots and close accordingly.

Nobody can on the web can tell you when you should go live.

LOL! You just told them to go live in 4th or 5th week. And then you said no one can tell someone to go live.

Sending some mixed information there.....

OnTheEdge posted:
What can be said is this;
You will never learn if you can trade on a demo account.

NONSENSE. ALL new traders should ALWAYS start on demo to learn to trade.

OnTheEdge posted:
You have to focus on your system rules not the win/loss or profit statement. ( Take screen shots of every trade, and notes of every trade.... search for 'TradeNote' or 'add complex notes to Metatrader 4' one of those is free the other a few bucks, best thing I ever added to MT4, if that's what you use.

Your Notes and screen shots should confirm you are taking trades PER YOUR PLAN!!!!!!

The Goal of your trading is to take All the trades All the time Per Your Plan, NOT TO MAKE MONEY!!!! The OUTCOME of following your Plan is Money.

Taking ALL the trades all the time? That's horrible advice.
ONLY trade to be profitable and adhere to STRICT risk management rules.

OnTheEdge posted:
Do not chase system after system, or buy into all the snake oil salesman trying to sale you the next great thing or convince you your mentally imbalanced and need their 3000$ course to get your head straight, what BS.
[/quote

Hey! We agree on something! Hooray! Paying $3000 for a trading course is absolutely a waste of time.

OnTheEdge posted:
Your going to have Losers that's part of the game, trading small and building up your size is how you stay in the game for the long haul.
This is a marathon not a sprint!

Absolutely agree with you on this point.

never stop testing on demo;even when using real money..practice makes perfection.!!!!

As long as one can. It is a demo account and the main purpose is to demonstrate on how the real account would work. The period of practice depends on the various factors. If you are confident enough to trade well in real account and is able to make the profit, that is when you can stop using the demo account. Well, at least to me.

rickyb posted:
never stop testing on demo;even when using real money..practice makes perfection.!!!!

Even the pros test new strategies and techniques on a demo. A demo is for life , not just for beginner

It’s already been said but I used a demo account until I was 6 months profitable. You will get better experience once you’re risking real money due to the emotions behind it but demo accounts are great for testing new strategies.

sometimes i prefer micro account for acquiring live knowledge and experience, because in demo traders lost interest after passing sometimes.

Trade for as long as you think on a demo and then add 2 more months!

rickyb posted:
never stop testing on demo;even when using real money..practice makes perfection.!!!!

Yep. Many experienced traders still use demo account to try out new methodologies and strategies.

i personally think you should use demo for not more than 6 months. Demo can be used for evaluating how you trade your strategy before jumping into a real trading account but with small lots till you feel confident enough to increase tha account and lot size. Demo will not make you a good trader because emotions are not involved since real money is not used.

Basically demo account trading is not realistic enough as you are not using real money and you don't have any emotional connection with the money because its dummy and it dosent matter either you loose the amount but if you have some money in the liv account you have actual emotional connection you have a feel how market goes but still I would suggest to start with demo account because it will build your decision making power once you master in it you can go with real money and that will actually teach you how to handle the risk and your emotions of fear.

  

Demo is a tricjy thing. I think you should stay demo no more than 2 weeks. It's enough to learn trading and go to cent fx acc. If someone stays more, he risks to miss learning how to control emotions, as demo doesn't involve moral trial...

chesterjohn posted:
How long did you spend on a demo account before going into real trading?

I've been trading 3 weeks on demo accounts. It's 2 different accounts because I started a new one to replicate exactly what my real account will be, the other is now a mess about account to play with.

I've got 3 consecutive profitable weeks totalling about 16% with 6% dd. I'm keen to get started, but still making to odd silly mistake. How does my record sound to people who are experienced?

Everyone has a different speed of learning. I took 3 months to practice on demo account and starting trading with my own funds after that.

Draggyr posted:
Demo is a tricjy thing. I think you should stay demo no more than 2 weeks. It's enough to learn trading and go to cent fx acc. If someone stays more, he risks to miss learning how to control emotions, as demo doesn't involve moral trial...

I agree that emotions cannot be tested while on a demo, but as far as my perspective is concerned, I think 2 weeks of demo trading might not be enough for most of the traders.