# Practice account, starting small and the journal > Use a practice account to build the routine, start small with real money only if you choose to, and log every trade in a journal that memory cannot edit. - Course: [Trading Basics: How It Works, How Not to Lose Everything](https://productovi.com/courses/trading.md) - Module: How do I turn an idea into a plan I can test? - Lesson 27/32, ~27 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/trading/practice-account-and-journal ## What practice is for **Alex Tutor:** Back on your Pebble practice account, today's question is what this account is actually for. Nora thinks it's pointless. **Nora:** Practice money isn't real, so practice isn't real either. I want to switch to real money and learn properly. **Alex Tutor:** A **practice account** won't teach you how a real loss feels. It teaches the routine: read the plan, check the no-trade list, set the stop with the order, size from risk, log the trade. **Alex Tutor:** If the routine isn't automatic with play money, it won't be with real money, when your heart is racing. **Marc:** My rule was 30 practice trades that followed the plan, before any real cent. Not 30 winners, 30 trades done by the book. **Sofia:** How do I know the routine is automatic? **Alex Tutor:** Count the plan breaks in your journal. No trade without a written stop, no size without the math, no exit without a log line. When the last 10 trades have zero breaks, the routine is there. > **Exercise:** Results on a practice account show how you will feel and act when you lose real money. ## Starting small, if you choose to **Sofia:** So after 30 good practice trades, the next step is real money? **Alex Tutor:** Only if you choose it. Real money is a decision, not the next level of a game. Many people stop after practice, and that's a perfectly good outcome. **Alex Tutor:** If you do start: a small amount you could lose entirely without touching rent, bills or savings. The same plan, the same risk per trade. And expect it to feel harder. **Nora:** Small? I'd hardly make anything. **Marc:** The point of starting small isn't to make money. It's to find out cheaply whether you can follow your plan when the money is real. **Alex Tutor:** One more line for the plan: write the amount down first and treat it as already spent. If it's gone, you stop and review. You don't top it up. **Alex Tutor:** Four ways to make that first real step. Only one keeps it a cheap experiment. > **Exercise:** If someone chooses to move from practice to real money, which start fits the idea of starting small? ## The journal **Alex Tutor:** Practice or real, log every trade. A **trade journal** is memory that can't edit itself. Here's a short one from a 10,000 practice account with a 1% risk plan: 100 dollars to the stop. ![Nora holds a magnifier over the one highlighted row of an open trade journal, which matches the deepest bar on the next page, while Marc holds the practice phone.](https://productovi.com/courses/trading/diagrams/m7-l3-scene.png) **Dataset (CSV):** [A sample journal, 8 trades](https://productovi.com/datasets/trading/practice-account-and-journal/m7_journal_sample.csv) Plan: risk 1% (100.00) to the stop; exit at the target, at the stop or after 3 days. Fees 2.00 per round trip; result is after fees. **Alex Tutor:** Some fields are written before the click: instrument, entry, stop, target, size. Others after: exit, result, whether the plan was followed, and a short note on your mood. ![Before the click: instrument, entry, stop, target, size. After the exit: exit, result, whether the plan was followed and a note on your mood.](https://productovi.com/courses/trading/diagrams/m7-l3-journal-fields.png) **Alex Tutor:** First, the split itself: which fields go in before the click? > **Exercise:** Which journal fields are filled in before the order is placed? Pick all that apply. > **Exercise:** Match each journal field with the question it answers later. ## What the journal says **Alex Tutor:** Now read it like an auditor. First the total: add up the result column. > **Exercise:** What is the net result of the 8 trades, after fees, in dollars? **Nora:** Plus 74. So the plan works? **Alex Tutor:** Eight trades can't tell you that; you need at least 30. But the journal already shows something else. Look at trade 4: plan_followed is "no". How much was at risk there? > **Exercise:** In trade 4, how many dollars were at risk to the planned stop (entry minus stop, times size, before fees)? **Marc:** And the note says "angry after trade 2". The journal caught the mood, the doubled size and the moved stop in one line. **Alex Tutor:** Now split the journal in two: the trades that followed the plan, and the one that didn't. > **Exercise:** What do the 7 trades with plan_followed = yes make together, after fees, in dollars? **Alex Tutor:** The 7 trades that followed the plan made +326. The one that broke it lost 252, three-quarters of all the rest earned. That's what a journal is for. ![Seven plan trades made +326 after fees. Trade 4 broke the plan: 200 at risk instead of 100, the stop moved, 252 lost, with the note "angry after trade 2".](https://productovi.com/courses/trading/diagrams/m7-l3-plan-vs-break.png) > **Exercise:** What is the most useful thing this journal shows after 8 trades? **Nora:** Fine. But I remember my trades. Why write it all down? **Alex Tutor:** Because memory keeps the story you like. Tell her what you'd add to her log. > **Exercise:** Nora's log has only two columns: date and result. In 2–3 sentences, name three fields she should add and what each would tell her after 30 trades. > **Journal fields** > > **Before the click:** date and time, instrument, side, entry, stop, target or time exit, size, planned risk in dollars. > **After the exit:** exit price, fees, result after fees, plan followed (yes or no), a one-line note: why, and how you felt. > **Key ideas** > > - A **practice account** trains the routine, not the feelings. Aim for 30 trades done by the plan. > - Real money is a choice, not a next level. If you choose it: a small amount you could lose entirely, the same plan, the same risk. > - A **trade journal** records what memory edits: risk, fees, plan breaks and mood. > - Under 30 trades, a total says little. A plan break with its note says a lot. > **Educational, not advice** > > This course explains how trading works; it never tells you what to buy or sell, or whether to trade at all. Most people who trade lose money, and you can lose all of it. For taxes and rules, ask a licensed professional where you live. - Previous lesson: [Backtest basics and traps](https://productovi.com/courses/trading/backtest-traps.md) - Next lesson: [Case: audit a journal and find the leak](https://productovi.com/courses/trading/audit-a-journal.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.