How long should I practice before trading real money?

There is no number of weeks, wins or practice trades that proves you are ready to trade real money. Use practice to find what you still cannot explain or execute. A clear plan and consistent logging are useful process checks; they do not establish an edge or make financial risk suitable for you.

What should I check while practising?

Keep two questions separate: “Can I follow the rule?” and “Does the rule have evidence of a positive net result?”

Check	Evidence you can record	What it does not establish
Rule clarity	Entry, exit, sizing and no-trade conditions written before the reveal	That the rule makes money
Process consistency	Count of decisions matching that version of the plan	That the plan is worth following
Risk arithmetic	Planned cash risk, stop distance and units	A guaranteed maximum loss
Testing quality	Unseen periods, all eligible trades, costs and assumptions	Future performance
Practical limits	Time available, order knowledge and ability to bear losses	A universal safe starting size

For example, in a hypothetical practice exercise, 18 of 20 decisions match your rule: 18 ÷ 20 = 90% compliance. That describes this exercise. It says nothing about the rule’s win probability, its uncertainty or whether you should use real money. Review the two exceptions and write what you could actually check next time.

Why are 20–30 trades not a readiness threshold?

A short batch can reveal missing journal fields, inconsistent stops or hindsight. It can also omit conditions in which a rule fails. Closely spaced trades may share the same market exposure. Trying many rule versions and keeping the winner adds selection bias.

If you choose 20 practice trades as a first review, label it a logging exercise. For a strategy assessment, record every attempted version and test a frozen rule on untouched data with costs. Read what evidence a price action rule needs.

How do replay, demo and live trading differ?

• Historical replay: many decisions in less time; vulnerable to peeking, cherry-picking and optimistic fills.
• Demo on current prices: platform and schedule practice in real time; still simulated money and execution.
• Live trading: actual fills, costs and financial consequences. Neither replay nor demo reproduces all of these.

Moving from replay to demo can be another practice step. A good replay score is not a reason by itself to move to live trading. The backtest-to-live gap explains the differences to inspect.

What can I practise in the app?

Price Action Trading Simulator is an iPhone and iPad practice app. Real-case exercises stop the chart before a decision, and manual backtesting reveals historical candles one by one. Sessions are saved on the device; there is no broker connection or real-money trading.

The first three candle lessons, opening chart-reading check and one real-case session of five cases are free. The backtest setup is free to browse; starting a session needs Pro. A simulated fee in R is configurable, but real spread, slippage and fills are not reproduced.

Start with a written plan and a journal to identify a specific gap. No completion badge, number of repetitions or checklist on this website certifies readiness to risk money.

Source and scope: this is educational material by the Price Action Trading Simulator development team. Price/account examples are hypothetical unless identified as a historical observation; exact fills and omitted costs are assumptions, not guarantees. Our case-data methodology explains the historical sources, selection and limits.