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Paper trading: practise orders and positions with no real money

SuperCharting paper trading is a practice account with no real money: place market, limit and stop orders with take profit and stop loss on live quotes.

Paper trading in SuperCharting is a simulated account for practice. You place market, limit and stop orders on real symbols, they fill against live quotes, and the Trading panel tracks your positions, orders, history and profit and loss, all with pretend money. No real money is involved, nothing is sent to any broker or exchange, and nothing you do here can create a real trade.

What paper trading is (and is not)

Each SuperCharting account has one paper trading account, kept by SuperCharting itself. It starts with a balance of 100,000 USD. Orders are matched by SuperCharting's own simulator against the quotes the site receives:

• Market orders fill at the current ask when you buy and the bid when you sell (at the last price when a feed has no bid and ask).
• Limit, stop and stop-limit orders wait as working orders and fill when a quote reaches their price.
• Take profit and stop loss brackets close the position when a quote crosses them.
• Positions are netted per symbol: a second buy adds to a long, a sell reduces it, and a larger sell reverses it.

What it does not do: it has no order book or queue position, it does not model slippage beyond the bid and ask, and it fills only while quotes arrive, so an order on a closed market waits until the next session. Paper results tell you how a plan behaves on live prices; they say nothing certain about how real orders would fill. Past results, real or simulated, do not guarantee future results.

The Trading panel

Press Trade in the header. The Trading panel opens under the chart with the account button Paper Trading on the left and these tabs:

• Positions: symbol, side, quantity, average fill price, last price, take profit, stop loss and P&L, with buttons to reverse or close.
• Orders: working orders with type, quantity, limit and stop price, status and placing time. Click an order to modify it, or cancel it.
• History: every fill and cancel with fill price, status and P&L.
• Account Summary: balance, equity, realized and unrealized P&L, buying power, margin used and commission paid.
• Notify log: fills, rejections and account changes in words.

Balance, equity and P&L are also shown at the right of the tab bar, with a new-order button, collapse and maximise. On the chart, open positions and their brackets are drawn as dashed lines with a P&L label.

How to place a paper trade in SuperCharting

1. Open a chart, for example XAUUSD on 15 minutes.
2. Press Trade in the header to open the Trading panel, then press Trade again (or the panel's new-order button) to open the order ticket.
3. At the top, choose Buy (at the ask) or Sell (at the bid). The spread is shown between them.
4. Pick the order type: Market, Limit, Stop or Stop limit, and enter the limit or stop price if needed.
5. Set the Quantity. For lot-based instruments such as Indian futures and options the ticket shows how many units one lot holds.
6. Tick Take profit and Stop loss and enter prices. The ticket shows the P&L each would give.
7. Check the order value and buying power, then press the button at the bottom, such as Buy 1 XAUUSD @ Market.

You can also right-click the chart at a price for Buy 1 XAUUSD @ 4,120.000 limit, Sell … stop or Add order on … at … (Shift + T); each opens the ticket filled in with that price. The Buy and Sell buttons on the chart open the ticket too.

An example

With gold at 4,130.00 bid / 4,130.30 ask you buy 1 XAUUSD at market. The position opens at 4,130.30. You add a stop loss at 4,110 and a take profit at 4,170. If a later quote shows a bid of 4,170.00, the take profit fills and History records a realized profit of 39.70 per unit, converted into the account's USD.

Currencies, commission and leverage

The account is kept in USD. A symbol's P&L is counted in its own currency, INR for NSE, BSE and MCX symbols, and converted into the account at the exchange rate the feed quotes, or a fixed fallback rate when no rate is quoted. Amounts in the panel carry their currency so you can tell them apart.

From the Paper Trading account button menu:

• Commission & leverage… sets a commission, either a percent of order value or a fixed amount per order in USD, and leverage from 1:1 to 1:500. Commission starts at 0 and leverage at 1:1. Leverage changes the margin an order uses and so your buying power; it multiplies losses as much as gains.
• Reset paper trading account… starts again with a fresh balance you choose, between 1,000 and 10,000,000,000 USD.
• Cancel all orders and Close all positions clear the book in one step.
• Hide panel closes the Trading panel; positions keep running and their lines stay on the chart.

An account can have up to 200 working orders. The simulator refuses orders that would use more than your buying power, take profit or stop loss prices on the wrong side of the entry, and buy stops below the ask or sell stops above the bid, with a plain message saying why.

Good ways to practise

• Rehearse your plan on live prices. Decide entry, stop and target before the order, then place it with brackets so the simulator holds you to the plan.
• Size by risk. Use the ticket's P&L preview to set a quantity where the stop loss equals the amount you would accept losing.
• Practise Indian F&O mechanics. Open a NIFTY option from the options chain and see how lot sizes change order value.
• Combine with Bar Replay for past data. Paper trading works on live quotes only; to practise on history, use Bar Replay. To test a rule set over years of bars, write a strategy and run the Strategy Tester.
• Use realistic costs. Set a commission close to what your broker charges, and keep leverage modest.

Paper trading is for learning. SuperCharting does not place orders with any broker; see broker connections for what a saved connection does today.

Frequently asked questions

Does paper trading use real money?

No. It is a simulated account with pretend money. Nothing is sent to a broker or exchange.

Why did my market order not fill?

The simulator needs a live quote. When the market is closed or the feed is quiet, the order waits and fills on the next quote.

Can I change the starting balance?

Yes. Use Reset paper trading account… in the Paper Trading menu and enter a balance between 1,000 and 10,000,000,000 USD. The reset clears positions, orders and history.

Are Indian stocks and F&O supported?

Yes. Any symbol with live quotes can be paper traded, with P&L in INR converted into the USD account. Futures and options use their lot size.

Do positions stay open when I close the browser?

Yes. The account is kept for you on SuperCharting, and working orders and brackets keep filling on live quotes while you are away.