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Paper Trading 101 - What is Paper Trading?

Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2021 12:05 am
by cbianben
Paper Trading 101 - Getting Started
The easiest way to learn trading is to begin by doing Paper Trading. So what exactly is Paper Trading? Paper Trading derives it’s name from the way things used to be done. Long ago, at a time not too distant in the past, stocks used to be traded “ on paper”. That is, to buy a Stock, you write down the name and the Symbol, known as Stock “Ticker” on a Piece of Paper and then give it to your Broker, who then would buy the Stock for you.

To understand, a stock symbol is simply a set of unique letters assigned to a Publicly traded company. The symbol is unique to that company and that company only. Here are some examples; JUMIA Technologies, is traded under the symbol, JMIA. UPSTART Holdings Inc, trades as UPST. Microsoft Corporation, trades under MSFT. GOOGLE trades as GOOG. So as you can see, these are easier to remember.
What then is Paper Trading?
Assume you want to buy 10 shares of Microsoft, 10 Shares of Google, 10 shares of Jumia, you can simply write down on paper:- Old way of doing it.
• 10 Msft
• 10 Goog
• 10 Jmia
Your Broker will understand what this means and buy them for you. But these days, nobody does this because there are many FREE apps to do this for you to make your life easy.
So Why Paper Trade?
To buy a real Stock, you have to spend real money. Starting with real money as an amateur, you CAN LOSE all your money. So the Objective of Paper Trading to allow you to Test your Stock Picking Skills BEFORE committing REAL MONEY and to build confidence.
How to Paper Trade:
To Paper Trade, you begin by picking Stocks of companies you believe would make you money or Stocks of companies you believe have a potential to make you money. You then PRETEND, you are BUYING and SELLING them over and over or over a specified period of time. Depending on what your criteria is, at the end of the period, you then see what the value of your Imaginary Portfolio. So if you made money, you know if you were using real money, you also would have done same. If you lost money, same would also be the case.
Example;
Let’s say you have 5000 you want you invest. On October 1, you “BUY” (Imaginary) 10 Shares of Microsoft, 20 Shares of Jumia, 5 Shares of Google, you write this down ON PAPER or APP that you are using to Track it.
Say you set a 30 Days holding or Trading Period. Suppose on October 10, you check, and notice that the value of the Stocks you bought are now worth 6000. Since you started out investing 5000, you then “SELL” (Imaginary)., again, you write this down on paper. You repeat this over and over. At the end of your investment period, you sell everything. Anything over the initial 5000, is PROFIT anything below, is a LOSS

RECAP:
• To Paper Trade, select some STOCKS you Like.
• Pretend to BUY and SELL them.
• Track and follow the price Movement.

Re: Paper Trading 101 - What is Paper Trading?

Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2021 3:11 am
by cbianben
You don't need an exchange or anything to do Paper Trading. You don't need money. All you need is a piece of paper or App to write down the Stocks you want to play with.
A typical Setup or design would look this way
Symbol Qty Open Price. Close Price Profit Loss. Date
MSFT. 5 $120. $125. $25. 0. 12/12/2021
JMIA. 10. $25. $22.50. 0. $25.00. 12/12/2021


You get the idea. All you need is where to get The Opening and Closing prices of Stocks; which is freely available from your Cellphone

Re: Paper Trading 101 - What is Paper Trading?

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2021 2:58 am
by cbianben
As I have said in the past, the key fundamentals to investing is having an Objective and a Goal clearly defined before anyone starts investing. So to start by practicing Paper Trading, here is the recommended approach.
Define your Goals and Objective: Here is a Sample.
    Objective\Goals: To grow my Portfolio by 30% within a 30 Days period.
    • Initial Investment
    I will start with xyzzy amount, but for this example:- Initial Portfolio Amount: $5000.
    • Target amount:
    $5000 plus 30% returns or $6500.
    • Strategy:
    Buy and Sell Stocks or Buy and Hold Stocks for the stated period(You can also do a combination of Trading and Holding). Sell the entire portfolio at the end of the period and take my profits or losses.
    Initial Portfolio Contents:

    Stock. Qty. Day Purchased. Price Industry. Day Sold. Price. Profit\Loss
    Goog. 5. 9/28/21. 3200. Technology
    MRNA. 10. 9/27/21. 420. Pharmaceutical
    JMIA. 100. 9/27/21. 19.00. E-Commerce

    REMEMBER, everything is imaginary, so let your imaginations run wild.
    Competition ends the LAST Trading Day of OCTOBER.
    You MUST publish your imaginary Portfolio No later than October 1. This is because, we need to mirror your holdings for you to Win.
    Good luck to all.

    Re: Paper Trading 101 - What is Paper Trading?

    Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2021 11:28 am
    by Precious
    Well Understood now

    Re: Paper Trading 101 - What is Paper Trading?

    Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2021 12:18 pm
    by cbianben
    Please, post your picks here so we can track and mirror your portfolio.
    Goodluck

    Re: Paper Trading 101 - What is Paper Trading?

    Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2021 3:39 pm
    by Precious
    Here is my paper trading portfolio.

    1. $UPST - Upstart - FinTech
    2. $AFRM - AFIRM - FinTech
    3. $MRNA- Morderna - Pharmaceuticals
    4. $SHOP - Shopify - E-Commerce
    5. RGEN - REPLIGEN. Industry Phamaceuticals

    Bought 25 numbers of shares for each of them :?:

    Re: Paper Trading 101 - What is Paper Trading?

    Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2021 3:15 pm
    by cbianben
    Precious wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2021 3:39 pm Here is my paper trading portfolio.

    1. $UPST - Upstart - FinTech
    2. $AFRM - AFIRM - FinTech
    3. $MRNA- Morderna - Pharmaceuticals
    4. $SHOP - Shopify - E-Commerce
    5. RGEN - REPLIGEN. Industry Phamaceuticals

    Bought 25 numbers of shares for each of them :?:
    Your portfolio is doing Great, so far !! You are in the MONEY !! I will update profits\Loses at Close of Market.

    Re: Paper Trading 101 - What is Paper Trading?

    Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2021 3:19 pm
    by cbianben
    cbianben wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 2:58 am As I have said in the past, the key fundamentals to investing is having an Objective and a Goal clearly defined before anyone starts investing. So to start by practicing Paper Trading, here is the recommended approach.
    Define your Goals and Objective: Here is a Sample.
      Objective\Goals: To grow my Portfolio by 30% within a 30 Days period.
      • Initial Investment
      I will start with xyzzy amount, but for this example:- Initial Portfolio Amount: $5000.
      • Target amount:
      $5000 plus 30% returns or $6500.
      • Strategy:
      Buy and Sell Stocks or Buy and Hold Stocks for the stated period(You can also do a combination of Trading and Holding). Sell the entire portfolio at the end of the period and take my profits or losses.
      Initial Portfolio Contents:

      Stock. Qty. Day Purchased. Price Industry. Day Sold. Price. Profit\Loss
      Goog. 5. 9/28/21. 3200. Technology
      MRNA. 10. 9/27/21. 420. Pharmaceutical
      JMIA. 100. 9/27/21. 19.00. E-Commerce

      REMEMBER, everything is imaginary, so let your imaginations run wild.
      Competition ends the LAST Trading Day of OCTOBER.
      You MUST publish your imaginary Portfolio No later than October 1. This is because, we need to mirror your holdings for you to Win.
      Good luck to all.
      TODAY is the last day to post your sample Paper Trading Portfolio for you to be in the competition. Those sent to me by DM will NOT be accepted. It must be posted here for all to see and track if interested.
      Good luck to all.

      Re: Paper Trading 101 - What is Paper Trading?

      Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 3:25 pm
      by Favour Benzfs
      This is my paper trading portfolio.
      1. $SPX
      2. $DJI - Dow Jones Industrial Average index
      3. $AAPL - Apple Inc
      4. $TSLA - Tesla Inc
      5. $BTCUSDT

      Bought 50 numbers of shares for each.

      Re: Paper Trading 101 - What is Paper Trading?

      Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 2:53 am
      by cbianben
      Code: Select all
      WOW! I love this! Great picks! I see a high roller! Thinking really big.
      
      $SPX Closed today $94.23 a Share for a total investment of $4,711.50
      $DJI closed $34,326.46 for a total of $1,716,150.
      $AAPL closed at $142.65 for a total of $7132.50
      $TSLA closed at $775.00 for a total of $38,750.00
      $BTC  is currently at $47,705 for a total of $2,385,250.
      
      You are really a big high roller.
      Geoduck to you