Paper Trading

Paper Trading runs a strategy on live market data without sending real orders to your exchange account.

Use it as a rehearsal between backtesting and live trading.

What Paper Trading Shows

Paper trading helps you check:

live signal frequency
whether the strategy reacts to real-time data as expected
simulated order intent
position changes
alerts and monitoring flow
whether the strategy is too noisy for live use

What It Does Not Do

Paper trading does not guarantee live execution quality or trade-mode availability. It does not fully reproduce exchange matching, partial fills, liquidity, funding, latency, permissions, or service policy.

Compare It with the Backtest

Use the same symbols, timeframe, and strategy version that you evaluated in the backtest. The goal is not to reproduce the historical return; it is to see whether signals arrive at a plausible frequency and whether the strategy reacts to current data as designed. Investigate large differences before moving on. They can come from changed market conditions, unavailable warm-up data, symbol mismatches, or logic that depends on information the live runner receives differently.

Keep notes on signal time, intended side, simulated size, and the reason each entry or exit fired. That makes it easier to compare a paper result with the DSL and to catch repeated or missing actions.

Recommended Use

Start from a backtested strategy.
Run it in paper mode on the same symbols and timeframe.
Watch the first signals.
Confirm order size and risk settings.
Confirm the claimed account, granted trade permission, and returned effective mode before requesting live trading.
Move to live trading only after the behavior is understandable.

Ask the agent to review paper trading behavior before switching to real orders.

Live-Readiness Review

Before switching modes, confirm that maximum exposure, position direction, exit logic, and failure behavior are explicit. Paper fills are simulations, so separately check the connected venue's supported order types, minimum size, price precision, leverage, and available collateral. Begin live trading at a size that lets you verify the complete order lifecycle without relying on the paper result as a fill guarantee.