Why Trade in a Day Trading Simulator?

Lots of new traders join the markets every single day. But the sad truth is that most of those lose all their money before they’ve properly learned how to trade – and would be ready to make $1000 or more per day. Yet, some day trading beginners do learn to trade the market and go on to earn a more than comfortable living from it.

So what differentiates the successful traders from those that fail before they’ve even started?  A proper trading education.

For think about it: imagine you want to be a lawyer, or a surgeon – or take up any other profession that requires you to master a set of highly technical skills. Would you expect to be able to jump right into the OR and start cutting open someone’s chest?  Of course, you wouldn’t, but with trading the markets (i.e. just another highly technical skill), people do expect to be able to jump in and make lots of money.

That’s not how it works and that’s why so many beginning traders fail. Fortunately, though, learning to trade the stock market doesn’t require you take a 3-, 4-, or even 5-year degree. Instead, you can learn to trade the markets in just a few short months. But you have to train at the right gym so to speak.

And the right gym, in this case, is a paper trading account.

What Is Paper Trading?

A so-called paper trading account allows you to trade the market without risking real money.
Essentially you’re seeing and doing the exact same thing as all other traders in the market, but once you hit that buy or sell button, there’s no money being deducted from your trading account.

Your order inside your day trading simulator will be executed and you will incur a win or loss depending on how your trade goes – but all of that is a simulated procedure.

So you will essentially have the real trading experience – thinking about your risk, determining the best entry point, punching your hotkeys – but without the risk of losing money. This way, you can practice trading until you’re comfortable and profitable (many of our students trade the simulator for 3 months) – and go live once you’re in a position to protect your precious capital or, ideally, multiply it.

As such, one day of trading in a simulator can be worth weeks of looking at static charts or reading books about trading.

Will Any Day Trading Simulator Do The Job?

Frankly, no! Or rather: it depends on the market data. If you want to realistically practice participating in the markets, your day trading simulator should provide you with market data that is as close to the real thing as possible. And some providers just don’t do that. They give you access to delayed market data, don’t provide pre-market movements or speed up the time frame in which stocks move.

Therefore, we at Bear Bull Traders recommend a day trading simulator that exactly mirrors the day trading platform that you’ll later use as a live trader. The platform is provided by DAS TRADER, one of the few NASDAQ Platinum Certified Order Entry Platforms. 

With the DAS day trading simulator, the only difference is that DAS will be linked to a paper trading account instead of your real account at your brokerage.  This way, switching from practicing to trading with real money is as easy as pushing a button and changing your account inside DAS trader. And it changes nothing in terms of what you do or see inside your day trading platform.

Please note: The 14 days free trial includes Nasdaq real-time regional and totalview data, but quotes are 20-min delayed. However, paid version of DAS simulator has real-time access to all exchanges.

DAS is designed and recommended to run on Windows machines only. Mac users can operate DAS with a Windows/iOS interface. Please watch this instructional video by DAS (LINK).

If you need to order 3-Months of the DAS simulator, you may do so after you login to your account and clicking the ‘Order DAS Simulator’ button from your member dashboard.

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