Demo to live: a checklist before attaching an EA to real money
Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2026 4:19 pm
EAs moved from demo to live very often do worse at first. A checklist catches the usual reasons before money is at stake.
A worked example: a strategy making 0.3 pips per trade on demo with no commission becomes negative with $7 round-turn commission (0.7 pips). The checklist catches that before the first live trade.
What's on your checklist?
- Same broker and the same account type on demo and live? Demo servers can have different spreads and execution.
- Same symbol names, digits and contract sizes? Suffixes like .r or .pro break symbol checks.
- Commission included in the backtest and demo? Some demo accounts charge none.
- Stop level and freeze level identical? Read them from the live specification.
- Lot size calculated from live balance and the live account's minimum step?
- Magic number unique, so the EA doesn't touch manual trades or other EAs?
- Behaviour after a restart: does it recognise open positions?
A worked example: a strategy making 0.3 pips per trade on demo with no commission becomes negative with $7 round-turn commission (0.7 pips). The checklist catches that before the first live trade.
What's on your checklist?