58LesPaul 

When should one go live from paper trading? From previous threads I've read successful traders do not win every day, maybe every week. So should I go live when I have won every week for how long? 3 months? 6 months? Or am I day dreaming there also? Thanks

I quit paper trading once I have a strategy that works for me. I switched to live trading once I was satisfied with my results and/or my trading got consistent. Consistency is about getting a kind of framework or method that works for you and you are able to apply it all over again in time.

That's just my opinion and experience, I hope it can be useful for you. It's not the "truth" or a rule to follow, just my experience

Beamsplitter 

I like Al Brooke's idea of trading so small that you don't care about loses or wins for that matter. Just focus on technique.

I have to agree with this, when I learned the methodology I used today, I did really well paper trading and completely messed up going live (albeit risking the minimum), I feel if I had risked the minimum sooner I would have also dealt with the psychology better and also understood the true nature of how to size trades properly.

Paper Trading and Live Trading are not mutually exclusive. Never stop Paper Trading. There's always something to learn or test. It's your practice field. No one takes the playing field w/o first learning on the practice field.

eventtrading 

Paper Trading and Live Trading are not mutually exclusive. Never stop Paper Trading. There's always something to learn or test. It's your practice field. No one takes the playing field w/o first learning on the practice field.

I rely on paper trading to test the indicators/strategy until it's working well..then go live.

As long as you feel confident about buying , selling, stop loss and lettone profits run .. you should go live .. this business is about the mindset and psychology.. trading live is à New expérience.. do not be afraid.. if you trade on the sim and its okay then go live .. losing trades are part of this business ..its more about how you contrôle risk and manage money ..

There was a nice interview with Courtney Smith on the Desire to Trade (Youtube) not long ago. That bloody guy has been trading since the 60-s. Dammit! One of the things he said was that a lot of people are very intelligent until they put on a trade. Then, he said, the IQ goes down tremendously (I think he said it drops to the size of one's shoe). My case for sure.

ursus 

There was a nice interview with Courtney Smith on the Desire to Trade (Youtube) not long ago. That bloody guy has been trading since the 60-s. Dammit! One of the things he said was that a lot of people are very intelligent until they put on a trade. Then, he said, the IQ goes down tremendously (I think he said it drops to the size of one's shoe). My case for sure.

Mine becomes negative, actually, something I didn't know was possible before I took up trading.

Bob.