Paper trading

Paper trading runs a strategy on the live market without real money, recording the trades it would have made. It checks that the rules behave as the backtest says on days the backtest never saw, and that live prices and fills match what was assumed.

Paper results flatter real trading in one way: there is no fear or hesitation, and fills are assumed. A few weeks of paper trading that match the backtest closely are a good sign before going live with small size.