Forward testing on demo: useful, but not a rehearsal for live execution

[Amanhasnoname]

Running a strategy on a demo account for a few weeks is standard advice. It catches bugs, checks logic and confirms that signals behave as expected.

What it doesn't test is execution. Demo servers often fill orders instantly, at the quoted price, with no rejections and little slippage. They may use a different liquidity setup from live accounts.

That means demo results will usually look better than live results for scalping, sometimes by a wide margin. A strategy that earns 0.5 pips per trade on demo might earn 0.1 live.

A better use of demo is to confirm that the system does what it's supposed to. Then move to a small live account to measure real costs, with positions sized so that losses don't matter.

After a few hundred live trades, compare the numbers with the demo and the backtest. The gaps show where the real costs live.

Treat the live micro account as part of the testing process, not as the final stage.

How large was the gap between your demo and live results?