Paper trading vs live trading

Paper trading (simulated or practice capital) lets you run real processes (signals, risk, rebalances, logging) without putting client or personal cash at risk. Live trading uses real money at a broker, with real fills, fees, and consequences.

What transfers

• Strategy logic and research discipline
• Operational habits (timers, exports, post-mortems)
• Honesty about drawdowns and regime failure

What does not fully transfer

• Fills and slippage. Paper fills can be kinder than live markets.
• Capacity. Size that works at paper NAV may not scale.
• Psychology. Watching real P&L hits differently.
• Ops risk. Keys, outages, fat-finger mistakes, compliance.

How Quant Eidolon labels it

Everything on this site defaults to paper unless explicitly stated otherwise. Combined NAV on Live Paper is a sum of practice accounts (Alpaca + OANDA), not audited fund AUM. See Legal.

A paper book is a skill signal and a process proof. It is not a regulated live track record for soliciting capital, and this site does not solicit investments.

Bottom line

Paper is necessary practice. Live is a different sport. Confusing the two is how operators lose trust, and how readers get misled.