By: Henry

Henry — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 02:22:46 +0000

While I can relate to some sentiment expressed in this article, overall I disagree with it. I think paper trading perhaps was a waist of time due to the absence of good technology to support it. I knew many traders who would resort to paper trading after hitting a string of loosing trades. They would do it for a few days but quickly return to real money trading. Nobody did it long enough, because there were no good tools, all they did is to input pretend trades into excel. I don’t care how gigy you are – it is a boring exercise – no wonder they would quit after few days of paper trading. However with the use of proper tools, for example the one provided by VivaTrader.com, and by doing it long time, I am talking about months, I believe you can make a paper trading a valuable learning experience, and avoid unnecessary losses. The alternative would be, as you may hear some times, to “trade small”, but how small can you get? The value of one S&P 500 emini contract if $50,000 and a value of a full contract is $250,000: you cannot buy less then one contract!! And if you are a forex trader you can only trade in currency blocks of 100K, is that small enough? Not for the most people. I would really suggest checking out this VivaTrader site. They provide full brokerage simulation including margin accounts, monthly statements, P&L reports and etc. That is how it should be to make paper trading not to be waist of time.

Comments on: Paper Trading is a Waste of Time

By: Henry