What to know before a first trade
A five-point checklist, without which the button is better left alone.
Have a concrete list of conditions under which a first trade on demo makes sense.
The reason for entering is stated in one sentence before the button is pressed.
A first trade is not an event and not a ritual. It is a check of whether you understand the mechanics. So the conditions for it are simple and take a minute to verify.
- 01You are on Demo, not on real money
- 02You know what expiry is and chose it deliberately
- 03You understand that payout is a payment, not a probability
- 04You can state the reason for entering in one sentence
- 05You know in advance how much you are prepared to lose
The hardest point is the fourth. “I feel like it is going up” is not a reason. A reason describes the situation: where we are in the structure, what we are working from, and what confirms it.
The fifth is often ignored too, because the money on demo is not real. But the habit forms exactly here: if on demo you stake half the account, you will do the same on a real one.
Keep the demo account at the scale you plan to work at for real. $10,000 on demo against a real plan of $100 builds behaviour that does not fit you.
If even one point is not met, that is not a prohibition but an answer: it is too early. Go back to it, close the gap, and the trade will not run away.
What people do
Training on a $10,000 demo balance while planning to start with $100. It builds a trade size and an attitude to losses that will destroy a real deposit.
What works
Before the first trade, write down the expected scenario in one sentence. Comparing the scenario with what happened teaches faster than the result does.
A practical example
A minimal first trade on demo looks like this: EUR/USD, $1 on a demo balance of $100, five-minute expiry, the reason written in the journal before the button is pressed.
After expiry, record the result and, more importantly, whether your scenario played out. Not “up or down” but “did what I expected happen or not.”
Key takeaways
- 01The reason for entering is stated in one sentence before the button is pressed.
- 02Keep the demo balance at the scale of your real plan.
- 03An unmet point on the checklist means “too early”, not “worth a risk”.
Lesson 8 of 10 in “WELCOME TO MERCER”