From Demo to Live: A Realistic 90-Day Plan for New Traders

Demo accounts teach you the buttons; they do not teach you the feelings. The transition to live trading deserves a plan of its own. Here is a 90-day version that has served many traders well.

Days 1-30: one market, one setup

Pick a single pair - EUR/USD is the classic choice - and one setup you can describe in two sentences. Trade it on demo every time it appears and nothing else. The goal is not profit; it is collecting thirty examples of the same decision, executed the same way.

Days 31-60: add the journal and the rules

Keep trading demo, but now with full discipline: written checklist, fixed one-percent risk, a daily stop, and a journal entry for every trade. By day 60 you should know your setup's rough win rate and, more importantly, whether you can actually follow your own rules for a month.

Days 61-90: go live - tiny

Fund a live account and trade the smallest size your broker allows. The point of these thirty days is to feel real money moving - the hesitation on entries, the itch to close winners early - while the amounts stay trivial. Expect your execution to get worse before it stabilises; that is the tuition.

Graduation criteria

• Thirty live trades logged with no broken rules.
• A maximum drawdown you predicted and stayed within.
• The honest ability to say "this trade lost and I would take it again."

Only then increase size - gradually, stepping up when a month of discipline has been banked. Slow is smooth, and smooth is profitable.