How to Paper Trade with TradeStation

Practice trading is so important to your development as a trader. With paper trading, you can put whatever skills you are acquiring to the test, without ever putting real money at risk. 

In the tutorial below, I show you how you can use TradeStation to paper trade (and I share with you my sneaky hack on how to toggle between both real and paper accounts very easily):

If you haven't opened an account with TradeStation yet, click here to watch our previous tutorial on how to do so. 

If you need to set up your charts and account in TradeStation, click here for our other tutorial. 

When you click the login button on TradeStation, you can either log in to your real account or the simulator. You can also just log in to your real account, and then switch it over which is what I prefer to do.

How can you tell the difference?

In your real account, in the upper right-hand corner you will see a green button that says "LIVE". 

You can click that button, and select "SIMULATED". Now it will say "SIM" which means you are now in your practice trading account. 

In my simulated account, I have adjusted my settings to make the charts and homepage black. In my live account, everything is white. 

If they look the same, it would be very easy to place a real trade when I just intended to place a practice trade, and vice versa. 

To switch to "dark mode", go into settings in the upper right hand corner. 

Click "App Settings" and then click "appearances". Select "dark theme". 

That way, one of your accounts has a dark theme and one has a light theme and there will be very little room for mistakes. 

Now on the right hand side you can select how to trade, and you can either select buying stock or options. 

Then you can also change your filters to only see call or puts, and from there select how many strike prices you would like to see (either above or below the current price). 

In summary, paper trading is a practical and educational step before diving into real trading. It offers a safe environment to learn, test strategies, and gain confidence without the financial risks associated with trading real money. It's a risk-free environment, and if you're able to perfect it in your practice account, doing it in your real account is no different.