Why do my demo results look so different from my live account?

Question

I made steady profit on demo for two months. On my first live week I lost more than I expected. What is going on?

Ayesha Rahman · Accepted Answer

This is very common. The main reasons are:

Emotions. Real money changes how you hold losses and take profits.
Execution. Demo fills are often perfect. Live trading has slippage, wider spreads around news and sometimes delays.
Position size. Many people trade huge lots on demo and much smaller ones live, or the other way round.

A good bridge is to go live with the smallest size (micro lots) and follow the same rules you used on demo. At this stage the goal is to learn to follow your plan under pressure, not to make money.

Mei Lin · Answer

Another thing is the number of trades. Many people take far more trades on demo because nothing is at stake, so the demo statistics are not comparable with live trading. I now allow myself the same number of setups live that I allowed on demo.

Why do my demo results look so different from my live account?

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