Demo to live help

First off i want to say thanks for all the replies and ideas!
Any way to start it short my friend started me on Forex about a month ago. I have been using ACM trading and have set up a demo account. At this point i am looking at opening a mini 2k-5k account. I was wondering if any of you have pointers about going from Demo to Live, I keep reading about the "Big" difference between live and demo and was wondering if any of you can give me a little more insight on that whole idea!


Thanks again.

This is a frequent question and you could do worse than a search at the bottom of your thread for similar threads. You'll see lots of opinions on the subject.

My opinion is that a demo account is fun and it's easy to close a losing trade because the money doesn't matter.

A live account may be controlled by fear and greed rather than impartial analytical judgement.

Here is an example: I opened a demo account for a relation and it has been doing very well. I only occasionally look at it and set longer term trades. I don't worry about it because I know she's not interested anyway!

Here's another example from 2007:

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=56722

I hope this helps you.

Thanks Smikester! Ya my main concern was that i am doing well on my demo account in about 3 weeks of activity i have made close to 6-7k above the starting base of 5k for a mini account. The main reason i asked is because I read about the big difference between demo and live, I guess what I am trying to get at is what gains am I to expect in comparison from the demo?

Thanks!

The "big difference" is reflected purely in your psychology and what you believe about yourself and your chances of success. With a small account, you will not be impacting the market in any perceptible way. Since “market impact” is not an issue, your success will be summed up in how you are able to handle the fluctuations in your equity.

Every time you demo trade, imagine if that was your hard-earned cash you see growing and diminishing. You would more than likely experience some sort of emotion which could potentially cause you to alter or change your trading plan on the fly to survive the emotional drawdown.


So, when you make the transition, start very, very small until you can handle the fact that nothing has really changed. The spreads are the same and your chances of success are found in one place – yourself.

demo = u drive ferrari in video games
live = u drive real ferrari in 100mph lol

Or this one.

Demo - you play video game and swim with the sharks.
Real - you really swim with the sharks with no protective cage or gear.

That's the difference in intensity, from fake money to real money.

If I were you, I'd go to a place that had Micro Lots and place trades using half the size you would normally use to get a feel for what its like to see real money going up/down in your account. Once you're comfortable with that, move yourself up to the mini.

Mini = 10k... Micro = 1k. So in the event you transition from demo to live extremely well, just do 10 micro lots for the same trade as buying/selling one mini lot.

But as others have said, it's a whole new ballgame. Good Luck!