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My Paper Trading Experiment: How I Made $5,317 in Two Days~~~Jan 29, 2025

What is Paper Trading?

Before getting into my results, let’s talk about what paper trading is. Paper trading is a way to simulate real trading using a demo account with virtual money instead of real cash. It lets traders practice strategies, test ideas, and gain experience without risking real money. Most brokerages, including Moomoo (the one I used for this experiment), offer paper trading platforms that mimic real market conditions.

My $5,317 Paper Trading Experiment

For the past two nights, I’ve been running a paper trading experiment using the Moomoo brokerage app. The app gives you a default $100,000 practice account, but instead of using that full amount, I pretended I had just $25,000—the minimum required to avoid the Pattern Day Trader (PDT) rule.

The PDT rule restricts traders with less than $25,000 from making more than three day trades in a rolling five-day period. Since I pretended I had a $25,000 account, I could trade freely without that restriction, just like I would if I had a real $25,000 account. However, I still traded with less than $25,000 per trade—just like I would in real life.

Here’s how it went:

Night 1: I made $4,698.17 from multiple trades using less than $14,000 per trade. The only reason I didn’t make more was because Moomoo’s paper trading platform is super laggy, making executions slow. But I also didn’t want to be too greedy.

Night 2: I made $619.30 from one trade because I was tired and decided to sleep early instead of trading more. 

Also the whole market was down and although I still could've worked with a bearish trade, I just really wanted to sleep. 

That brings my total to $5,317 in just two nights—all while using less than $25,000 per trade, just like I would with a real account.

Why This Matters

I’m also still trading with my real money on the side, but this experiment was meant to show people how easy it is to make money if you’re an experienced day trader with $25,000. Instead of saving money for years, you could be doubling or tripling your savings in a very short time just by trading smart.

The PDT rule holds a lot of traders back (although the SEC supposedly made the rule to "help" traders 🙄) , but once you reach that $25,000 minimum, you can trade freely and scale up your profits much faster.

I know I talk about trading a lot, but that’s because it’s one of my passions. Making money through stocks is fun to me 🤸🏽‍♀️ There’s something exciting about watching the markets move, executing well-planned trades, and seeing the profits add up. This paper trading experiment was just another way to test my skills and prove what’s possible. ʕ⁠ ⁠º⁠ ⁠ᴥ⁠ ⁠º⁠ʔ

Side note, my daughter locked me outside my apartment for the 3rd time in less than a year. This time she put on the chain lock. I was locked outside in my pajamas because I wanted to take out the trash after dinner but Moemi quickly put the chain on. Look what happened.