I agree with you that demo trading isn't the same as a live account. but having said that I don't see the point opening a live account if I can't even be profitable with a demo account.
So my plan is to build a system that works profitably in the demo account and then open a small account as you suggest.
Opening a live account without a tested system seems a little pointless to me because you aren't just dealing with the psychological aspects of trading you are then in the process of still trying to build a system and that could get expensive.
But yeah live trading with a small account will come as soon as I can be profitable demo trading for a month or two
Set the leverage to 10 ? That's even worse advice than not to put warrenfx on your ignore list.
Altrader, my advice is, unless most of your trading is based on small scalping trades, forget about it. Go for the 1/2 - 3 leverage range and if you get consistant profit on a real account for a while then try a bit higher. Also, you should understand that things can work quite differently on a real account compared to a demo, as hard as it may be to imagine at first. Aspecialy if you try using short term indicator based systems.. and of course, you learn a phousand times faster with real money, even if it's just a little bit. Good luck
Cool, well I wish you luck. It seems like as good a way as any to enter the market. The key is discipline. If you can stick with a plan, you should be ok.
Still Demo is only useful for learning how to put an order in / cancel them ...
Most people find that it takes a few years trading real money to become really profitable, consistently. Thats why the high failure rate is often associated with futures/forex trading. Most people become disillusioned and quit. Two months doing a demo - working out a strategy gets you ready for the chop. A strategy can work for six months, make amazing money, then in no time at all, you can lose it all, because the market changes its direction / behaviour.
Being profitable with a system is a short term thing. Generally the market is always changing, but the two main phases are trending and consolidation. As soon as you have the discipline to trade those and the breakout between them you are probably disciplined enough to throw copious amounts of real money at it.
Throwing cash around with the price action and scalping / micro trading the intra day consolidations between moves is a pretty good way to go, and get used to trading. Generally, you should aim to get to something called subconscious competence, where you just trade without really knowing how you do it... its essentially where Im at. Expose yourself to it enough, and you just get a feel for it.
Good Trading.
I found a lot about trading is learning about yourself and how you react to greed/stress / different situations.
Deposite 0.1% of your current savings
All of you guys could have a point with regards to leverage. at the moment I'm using 20:1 on Oanda on my demo account. I'm going to expriment using a demo account to see first hand how the leverage affects my trading style. I'm still leaning towards keeping the leverage as is at 20:1 but I'll see as I play around more.
Quick question though Jurrasic: Didn't you say that you're using a demo account at the moment? Is there a reason that you decided to do demo trading as opposed to trading a small live account?
What can I say, good call or good luck but profit is profit 
