What Is Paper Trading?

What it means

Paper trading replaces real capital and broker execution with a virtual account. It lets you practise order handling and inspect simulated results without placing those orders in the market.

It does not remove every limitation of trading practice. Historical candles cannot reproduce every intrabar move, and a simulation cannot establish the liquidity or price available to a real order.

How it works in TradingLead

From paused native Bar Replay, choose Trade and review the starting balance, commission, slippage and short-position settings. Sign in and start practice. The chart switches to a separate simulation player; a strategy or prior backtest is not required.

The account uses the instrument's reported quote currency or generic units. A virtual balance is not automatically an INR balance, and the simulator does not perform currency conversion.

Key capabilities

Paper tickets support market, limit, stop and stop-limit orders, with optional stop and target settings. The account records fills, costs and exit legs for review.

For manual historical market orders, the latest revealed close is the reference, with configured costs. The cursor need not advance. Pending orders and protective triggers use eligible later candles rather than the entry candle's earlier high or low.

How to use it

Start with a small, clearly defined practice question. Check whether each order filled or was rejected. After an exit, use View on chart to compare its recorded prices with the surrounding candles.

See paper trading for the broader feature and trade review for reading markers and labels.

Limitations

Replay practice accounts are saved on the current device. End preserves the account but does not free an occupied active slot. Direct practice can load later closed candles, but a rolling history window can make full-history candle analytics unavailable while retaining account and trade records.

Paper P&L is a simulated result, not a promise of future returns or investment advice.

FAQ

Is this the same as native replay?

No. Replay is candle playback; paper trading adds an account and simulated orders.

Are orders sent to a broker?

No. The described paper workflow uses virtual funds and no real orders.

Does a paper profit validate a live strategy?

No. Data, costs and execution assumptions all limit what a simulated outcome demonstrates.