There are many of us who only enjoy trading the stock market when real money is on the line. It’s similar to the gambler’s addiction to the rush of the prospect of free money. There is an inherent flaw with this type of mentality, of course. If you only work on your trading skills when you are actually using your own money, how can you ever expect to try out new untested stock trading strategies?

Becoming a better stock trader is not an easy task. You have to put in the time on your practice stock account in order to try out those underdeveloped skills. We all have a set of conditions or criteria that we use to trade stocks (at least we should, or we are going to have a very hard time making sound trades). We grow accustomed to way we have always traded, especially if we have had some success in the past. There is nothing wrong with sticking to a trading system if it is working for you, but there is always opportunity to refine that system or add in new trading indicators.

The point is that we should all have a paper money account that we use to develop new trading theories into full fledged trading systems. If you are diligent in using your practice account, you will be more likely to find that one technical signal that increases your probability of having a positive trade. Even if you are having decent success with the way you currently trade, there is not anyone out there that wouldn’t benefit from a little bit of experimentation. If you can up your percentage of positive trades by just two to three percent you will see enormous gains in the bottom line at the end of the year. Keep your nose to the grindstone, and look for any way possible to increase your rate of return trading stocks.