paper trading doesnt work because most people do different trading when real cash is involved. i started immediately with money when i was young. i sold my internet business for 7000 and i put everything into stocks. its a different experience. risk management: i can add never have 10% or more in one position. thats pretty much it. for stocks i go for 10% and have 10-20 positions. for forex just one maximum 2 positions at 10% margin. in terms of emotions i totally agree. only observing my own emotions (my spiritual path helped a lot) i was able to distance from greed and fear completely
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What do you mean no more than 10% in one position? 10% doesn't mean anything if it is not related to your stop loss. How much of your account is at risk if your stop loss order is hit?
Also I don't agree that paper trading doesn't work. It gives a trader practice using a new system. Yes the emotions are different between paper and real money... but someone who has practiced a system will have an idea of when that system works best. Going straight in with real money without practice will lead a trader to either: abandon the system if it doesn't make money right away, over trade, stop using proper risk management.
Plus intuition is one of the most dangerous ways a trader can trade. There is no repeat-ability and you are super susceptible to emotional trading. I'm all for doing an intuition trade here and there with a small amount of money as it keeps things interesting, but doing things exclusively on intuition will most likely yield underperformance and will guarantee a blown account by a newbie.
I've done a lot of statistical research on trading. You can become very good and very profitable if you can control your money management and emotions. You can even be a shitty timer and still make a lot of money. The key is discipline.
i dont use stop losses. i got stopped out of great positions before. maybe i have an advantage because i recognize the difference between intuition and emotion. so mental maturity i guess is key to doing successful trading and enjoyable trading. what i meant with 10% is if i have 100% capital i will allocate maximum of 10% to one position