if you have to ask this question that means...

anyway, here you go:

parents, siblings, mentors, personal coach, internet/youtube/google, books, Cd, TV, radio, seminars, blogs, employers, colleague, social events, conference, roadshow, clients, and forum here, etc......

school IS over-rated.

She learned from the school of hard knocks. She did well in the end. Everyone can look back and say if only they did this or that differently. That is how life is. Sometimes you don't know what works until it is over and done and then you look at the results. You can paper trade for a year, and make a million dollars on paper. Then you can say at the end, if only I did real trading during that time and made a real million, I don't have to trade anymore forever.

I am not saying paper trading is no good. I am saying it depends on the person and their character and how they learn best. You can paper trade and make paper profits. But it can go wrong when you get to real trading. It is not a fool-proof way. It may help, but it is no guarantee. Just like there is no guarantee that if you do real trading and you profit the first few times, you will forever profit.

Its not only about how you do on paper. The stock market is dynamic. What works on paper for the past months may not work for the next months. Its about opportunity, timing, sentiment, news, rumours, and luck etc. These don't stay the same.

Based on your paper trades, you can go into a real trade which under normal circumstances would make you a 100% profit. But a couple of days later, some unexpected world events make the market go down a lot. That is beyond your control and experience.

Trading in the stock market is sort of a gamble like going to the casino or playing 4D. There is no certainty to the outcome. People don't like to say its a gamble. So they use words like managing risks etc. Life itself is a gamble as its full of risks and your taking a chance all the time, even when crossing the road. You mitigate or manage the risks by looking left, right, left again before crossing. That does not mean a helicopter won't fall on your head, or a stray bullet won't hit you while you're crossing after taking precautions.

I think one of the things lowya is pointing out is that if this year is a bull market, you learn paper trading and do well. Next year you start real trading, but its a bear market. You have lost out an opportunity due to the timing.

It seems paper trade works for you. You seem to have found a magic  formula which we are not aware of. Good for you. Point is, it may not work for everyone the same as characters are different. From gark's posting, it seems that he does well in his trading / investments. I don't remember him saying that he paper traded for years before starting. I am guessing he studied and did research on stocks before buying  them. Good for him too.

There must be some who have lost money when they started, but then made much more later on. Like the girl you mentioned. Good for her.   For some people, no pain no gain...

Also, there is lots of discipline and patience factors involved in trading. You must also be mindful of not everyone has the same amount of capital to trade / invest. You may be having lots of money in the 6 figure range and want to earn more from it. You have all the time in the world to wait for the big returns. But there will be some who only have say 4 figures as capital and are looking for some returns to help ease living expenses etc. They cannot wait years before starting to try to get some returns.

Ok, session over... lunch break...

Exactly. Everyone got their own opinions and methods. Everyone does not need to agree with everyone else. No harm discussing, no harm disagreeing. Everyone ultimately decides what they want to do on their own. No one person is right. Do whats right for you. No need to force everyone to follow one method. As I've said, something works for you, good for you. That is not the only method.

So Smurfs , how long did you do paper trading before you did your first real trade?

Paper trading. Usually u win more then lose. Cause you can look at things objectively, its not real money.

Real trading... emotion comes into play... always holding back for more profit, always holding back to cut loss, cause its REAL money.

So... if u can make 20% from paper trading... dont expect anything more then 10% in real trading...

Experience from Commodities trading.. not stock.. so it moves much faster..

I think (or at least in my mind) you got say before. At least you mentioned years. I thought it was 3 or 5, but I wrong since you said 8. I should have written your post down on paper...

Not sure if you want to answer, never mind if you don't....

In the 8 years of your paper trading, do you have a rough percentage of wins vs loss? Like 50-50 or 70-30 etc?

How does that compare with your real trading after that? Is it about the same percentage? Or much better?

You see, I ask not because I want to know how much profit you make....

I can see how you are trying to guide newbies on to a track so that they don't lose money right at the start. I can appreciate that, believe  it or not...

However, IMO, it is not much point just chanting a mantra unless you show the benefits. Or else newbies will not take it seriously. Your story about the girl who lost money initially is a good one that newbies can probably  relate to or be aware of or be afraid of.

Why some people read books of other successful people is because they want to see if they can follow or emulate to also achieve success. But the book must have explanations of why and how in order for one to learn from it, or else it is just like another story book.

There is a difference between preaching and teaching...

Trading becoming philosophical...

You see, I ask not because I want to know how much profit you make....

I don't know 

In my previous posts, I have already said that I am not saying paper trading is no good.

My point was to ask after doing 8 years of paper trading, you should be having close to 100% wins with real trading after that. Except that one time, if I remember correctly, you said you lost some 3K or something on a trade - can't quite remember exactly. Such stats would thus help a newbie understand the value of it all.

Do you think if you tell a newbie to paper trade first for 5 or 8 years before doing a real trade, they are going to follow?
No, I wasn't asking for you actual trading profits etc.

Anyway, if anyone is interested here is an article about paper trading. As I say, there are normally two side to everything. Make sure you read the user comments at the bottom to get a wider view. One of the comments say what MeToo said in an earlier post here. People generally write articles to push their own viewpoint only. Does not mean there are no other correct viewpoints.

https://tinyurl.com/kgo8bp7

In my previous posts, I have already said that I am not saying paper trading is no good.

My point was to ask after doing 8 years of paper trading, you should be having close to 100% wins with real trading after that. Except that one time, if I remember correctly, you said you lost some 3K or something on a trade - can't quite remember exactly. Such stats would thus help a newbie understand the value of it all.

Do you think if you tell a newbie to paper trade first for 5 or 8 years before doing a real trade, they are going to follow?
No, I wasn't asking for you actual trading profits etc.

Anyway, if anyone is interested here is an article about paper trading. As I say, there are normally two side to everything. Make sure you read the user comments at the bottom to get a wider view. One of the comments say what MeToo said in an earlier post here. People generally write articles to push their own viewpoint only. Does not mean there are no other correct viewpoints.

https://tinyurl.com/kgo8bp7

Agree with both thumbs up

Yes, everyone should respect each other's opinions.

Just my 0.005, from my point view, paper trading should only be used to how one is familiar with entering orders, the filling of orders and how the market works. Paper trading for too long could result in overconfidence and just delude one to think the stock market is perfect.

If we observed in the US markets, you will know what I meant. The bid and ask spread is way bigger than our Bursa and the market makers may play or give leniency to a trader when matching orders. I am not saying it is bad or stay away from paper trades but that is how I see it.

Just my 0.005, from my point view, paper trading should only be used to how one is familiar with entering orders, the filling of orders and how the market works. Paper trading for too long could result in overconfidence and just delude one to think the stock market is perfect.

If we observed in the US markets, you will know what I meant. The bid and ask spread is way bigger than our Bursa and the market makers may play or give leniency to a trader when matching orders. I am not saying it is bad or stay away from paper trades but that is how I see it.

Fuyoh, that is some very long explanation, opinion here. 

Very well written indeed. So okay, let us explain on the negatives of paper trading first, because sometimes we get out from the stock market or have yet to open the trading account with the brokerage house , can nevertheless attempt to do paper trading. From my standpoint, when conducting paper trading on the day itself, maybe a stock favoured by a trader is doing so well. And it comes back to various reasons such as, good corporate earnings, speculation to news, good progress on the development of companies etc. But when we enter with real money, problems begin to surface.

For this, let us to last Friday on OLYMPIA as an example. I paper traded around 13.5 within my imaginary mind. Not real money, fake. So the stock did very well right, on Monday, gilanya, it rose to 17.5, I entered another few thousand lots, once again, fake, flimsy, paper money. Wow, won a ton of fortune. Having amassed with delusion, being very high and greedy on the stock, I entered 19.5 today as at this posting, this time, real, hard, cash. I think it will hit 22 today, well, let us take a bet. As of this writing, 17.5. So, somewhere is wrong right? Stock or greed problem.

While I agree, to the above as you mentioned that we can test new methods out and pattern day trading (yes, in fact I am practicing NYSE/CBOE options before playing for real as a starter.), as traders, we need to test waters first before just jumping in. But what above that instinct one has, the willingness to jump in if one has "hope". Yes, the "hope" is really a dangerous word in the stock market world. It is akin to saying, "gambling ones wealth". This discussion would seem very fitting as Bursa continues to sky-rocket new records on trading volumes and gives similar flashbacks to 2014. It is something that everyone as to be wary of.

For ones information, I got scared of entering some of Bursa's currently mouthwatering shares that one's share would melt into one's mouth. Examples include DATAPREP, IWCITY and as mentioned OLYMPIA. Made a fortune, in a paper trading world but of course, if I gamble all now, real money, I will be a huge loser. So I do not know where it goes. But as mentioned before, paper trading is good for testing out strategies but not for a source of delusion and when one becomes delusional, that person's mind disappears into oblivion.

Whew, that is some one long post I have done in a long time.

I've said before, I'm not saying paper trade is not good. If it helps you succeed, good for you.
You obviously believe it is the best way to go, as can be seen from how strongly you feel and defend it.
Your advice to newbies to do it is welcome. I don't think many will do it like you have for years and years before they get into the real trading though.

Some of my trades are real money. Just that in this time of time, I became so "rambang mata", do not know which stock to go or not to go. On Friday's Trading At Last session, I had to pick between Foundpac or Dataprep, I went to Foundpac instead. See what happen after that Friday. Susah like that to pick which is what.

And since we are in our fantasy, perfect world, hence paper trading. But nothing wrong discussing about that, some of us had to go back to the drawing board by paper trading.

I think we all fed the troll.

But no matter, healthy discussions are always welcome around so all of us can improve.

Not sure how many more times I must say, I did not say you must not paper trade. Please understand that.

I posted a link to an article in an earlier post about paper trading. Go read that. Got some comments at the bottom by users. As I always say, there is good and bad to everything. Pros and cons.

You have made it clear you don't think people should pay tuition fees, which can be avoided by paper trading first. Yes, good advice. If people want to take it, let them. If people don't want to listen, and they want to pay tuition fees, let them. It is not your responsibility. Unless they are your kids or something.

That is one long explanation.
Btw, seeing these current warrants such as AMMEDIA WA shooting up by 100% makes me feel deeply disadvantaged that i dont have a crystal ball to be able to predict such price movements