(Try out Paper Trading for cheap during the Trade-Ideas Test Drive.)
Here at Trade-Ideas we’re in the process of releasing our paper trading platform. OK, so you can trade fake money — what’s the big deal? As someone who has traded the markets for 15+ years I can say with certainty that when used properly Trade-Ideas Paper Trading can take your trading to the next level. Here’s how to do it.
A Successful Trader’s Worst Habit
I can honestly say that I’m a successful trader having been profitable all but 2 years of the last 15. I’m always doing things to improve my trading which mostly involves brainstorming different strategies to efficiently make money. At any given time I have several strategies in various stages of development.
The biggest mistake I end up making is scaling up size too quickly. I spend too little time paper trading a newer strategy. Backtesting is awesome, but you need to spend time watching trades play out in real time to fully understand the WHY — why your strategy looks great in a backtest, why the strategy makes money, and what is the best way to trade it.
Why is this Stage Hard?
I realized over time that I was spending too little time Paper Trading these ideas. Part of the reason was that I was in a hurry to trade the strategy because I thought it had a limited shelf life — I thought the strategy’s edge would evaporate, so I needed to trade it now while it had edge. I now build strategies from the ground up to have staying power — edges that last for the long term.
The Technical Reason I Didn’t Paper Trade Enough
I slowly realized that the main reason I wasn’t paper trading enough was actually pretty simple technical reason. It’s impossible to have a Paper Trading platform open at the same time as your regular live trading platform — maybe not literally “impossible” but at the least VERY, VERY, VERY awkward. It’s so awkward that I found myself skipping that stage since it required logging into a separate account at Interactive Brokers and having TWO instances of TWS running at the same time. Do you want real time data in both your trading platform and your paper trading environment? That’s hard or impossible in most trading platforms!
Paper Trading should be SIMPLE and easily available alongside your real trading platform. You shouldn’t have to pick and choose whether you’ll be live trading or paper trading on a given day.
Enter Trade-Ideas Paper Trading
We’ve built the Trade-Ideas Paper Trading platform from the ground up to operate seamlessly alongside your actual trades. No awkward convoluted hoops to jump through, no sacrificing real time data, and no picking or choosing which platform to run. It shows up as just another account in Brokerage Plus.
Paper Trading Should Work in your Normal Trading Routine
Paper Trading should be available right at your fingertips. When you’re in the middle of a trading day, you need to be able to make split second decisions and fumbling around with another instance of your trading platform just to send a paper trade is unacceptable.
That’s why we put Paper Trading right alongside your real trading — seamlessly available right in your normal trading workflow. Add a strategy in Brokerage Plus like you normally do with all your trading instructions and position sizing predefined and Paper Trading conveniently shows up as another account to point to.
Then when you want to make a paper trade, just right click in almost any window in Trade-Ideas Pro and access the trade menu and choose your strategy. Easy!
Track Paper Trading Performance
When you make paper trades in Brokerage Plus, you’ll see your positions right along side your live trades in the Positions tab. You can monitor performance across all your trades live and paper or you use the Account filter to show just your live trades or just your paper trades.
Paper Trading has to be an important part of what you do. As a trader you MUST be continuously learning and adapting and paper trading has to be an important part of your improvement journey.
(Now is the perfect time to give Trade-Ideas Paper Trading a spin in our Test Drive.)
