Paper trading to live: when to switch
There is no set number of weeks. The usual test is whether your practice trades follow a written plan, whether the results hold up with realistic fills and costs, and whether you can say what you will risk per trade and per day. Then start small, because real money changes how people trade in ways a simulator cannot.
Checks worth passing first
- A plan you follow. Your setups, entries, stops and exits are written down, and your journal shows you trading them rather than improvising.
- Results with realistic fills. The practice numbers include slippage and commissions, and limit orders filled only when the queue reached them. See is paper trading realistic.
- Your real size. You practised at the share size you will trade live. A trade that works at 100 shares can cost far more at 5,000.
- Different kinds of day. Quiet days, fast days, halts and opens that went against you, not only the mornings that went well.
- Known risk. You can say how much you will lose on one trade and in one day before you stop. The position size calculator turns that into shares.
Make practice look like live first
Set the practice account to the balance you would fund, with the commissions you would pay and the pattern day trader rule if it applies to you. Trade one plan. A replay lets you go back and take a trade again; that is good practice, but count the first attempt, because live you get only one.
Check your fills, not just your profit and loss
A practice profit made on fills the market would not have given you is not a profit. On POM on 21 October 2026, our recap works out a 5,000-share buy a second after each of the seven morning reopens from 9:40 to 10:30 a.m. Against the price on the screen, those buys cost 1,203 dollars more in total, 488 of it at the 9:51 reopen alone, and nothing extra at two of them. The details are on how to trade halts.
If your practice fills come from the real order book, that cost is already in your results. If they come from the price on the screen, it is not.
What changes when the money is real
- How it feels. Hesitating on entries, moving stops, cutting winners early. These show up live even when they never did in practice.
- Your own size. In practice your order does not move the market after it fills. Live, a large order on a thin stock can.
- The rules on your account. Margin, short locates and the pattern day trader rules depend on your broker and your account. See hard to borrow and locates.
Start small, keep practising
Many traders go live at a fraction of their practice size and keep practising alongside, then compare the two journals. If live results fall far below practice, the gap usually points at fills or at behaviour, and both can be practised. None of this is advice, and a practice result is not a forecast of a live one; what the fill model leaves out is on the disclaimer page.
Common questions
- How long should you paper trade before going live?
- There is no set length. A common test is a written plan you follow, results that hold up with realistic fills and costs, and a risk limit per trade and per day you can state in advance.
- Is a profit on paper a good sign?
- Only if the fills were realistic. A profit made at the screen price, or on limit orders filled the moment the price touched them, can disappear live.
- Why do traders do worse live than on paper?
- Usually a mix of fills and behaviour: real orders pay slippage and wait in the queue, and real money makes people hesitate, move stops and exit early.
- Should I keep practising after going live?
- Many traders do. Practice is where a new setup, a change of size or a bad habit can be worked on without paying for it.
- What should I track before switching to real money?
- Your plan followed or not, the slippage and commissions on each trade, the size you traded, and your largest loss in a trade and in a day.
Practise with fills from the real book
Replay a real morning, trade it at your live size, and see the slippage on every fill in the journal.
Free while we're in beta. No card needed.