Imagine how much better of a forex day trader you could be if you were able to practice your patterns and strategies many times a day, every day, even on weekends.

Or maybe a particular setup is causing you issues, but instead of having to wait for that particular occurrence to happen in the market, you could practice it over and over again in your free time…do you think that would help your trading?

I know it would!

If you could trade three sessions a day instead of one, do you think that would triple your progress? I bet it would.

Practice, rehearsing, and doing things over and over again has dramatically helped my own trading. Repetition is how we get better at anything.

Having to Wait Slows Progress

When I started day trading stocks back in 2005, the only time I got to practice was while the market was open. My favorite time to trade was the first hour after the stock market opened, and that’s where I made most of my money.

I would trade the first hour, and then have to wait another day (possibly 3 days if it was a Friday) before I could practice trading at my favorite time again.

When I started trading day trading forex, it was the same thing. A couple of hours of trading, and then a day of waiting before I could practice again. Yes, I could review my charts and look at historical data, but it isn’t quite the same as live price bars unfolding in front of you.

Practice Forex Day Trading on Live Data Anytime You Want

It’s not 2005 anymore. Day traders can practice on live data as much as they want, whenever they want, on decades of historical data, just like they were trading in live conditions. Do this on weekends, in your free evening time, or even replay the session you just traded to improve your precession on entries and exits.

“Trading in live conditions” is key. Looking at historical charts is great—do it when you are first learning a strategy—but you don’t get the “feel” of the candles forming, having to wait for your entry and pouncing at the right second. The bars are fully formed already on a historical chart.

Day traders need a simulator that shows every tick (every transaction as a candle unfolds) the market went through on its way to entries, profit targets, and stop losses. That’s the only way to mimic real market conditions.

Thankfully, Forex Tester 5 (use link and coupon code: TRADETHATSWING10 for 10% off) offers that. Real tick data…like you’re trading live.

You can use it to practice day trading forex (as well as a limited number of stocks, futures, and cryptocurrencies), whenever you have a bit of free time.

Many other replay features show completed 1-minute candles (or whatever time frame), but don’t show how the candles formed. One completed candle just forms after the next.

Completed candles are a summary of what happened, not the whole story. For accurate profit and loss data, we need tick data. We need to see how the candles are created so we can work on precisely nailing our entries or working on specific issues such as calculating our position size or stop loss size on the fly.

With Forex Tester 5, I can download data from 2011, 2016, or 2018, and practice trading in volatile or quiet conditions, during the 2020 pandemic, or during the 2008 financial crisis (both 2020 and 2008 had periods with crazy moves! I was trading them live. Now you can have that experience too!).

The more conditions we practice in, the more robust our trading becomes.

Practice All Conditions During the Time of Day You Usually Trade

It may look like magic to be able to navigate a massive trend one day and a tight range the next…but it’s not magic, it’s just practice.

If you practiced day trading EURUSD, SPY, or a stock you like, for 20, 30, or 40 sessions when it is flat and quiet, do think if flat and quiet conditions come up in your real trading you could navigate it better?

What if you practiced trading 20 or 30 sessions where there were big trends and lots of volatility? When those big trending days arise in your real trading, would you be better prepared to capitalize?

Of course! The more often you trade certain types of conditions the better you will get at them.

You’re getting the experience of an experienced trader, but in a fraction of the time. You can day trade hundreds of sessions in several months if you want.

Here’s how with Forex Tester 5:

• Download historical forex tick data going back 21 years (with economic news announcements marked). A limited number of stocks, futures, and cryptocurrencies have data back several years.
  
  
• Use the Jump To-Search feature to jump to the time of day you typically start trading, and start the simulator. Start trading just like you would a live session.
  
  
• Send out orders with a stop loss and profit target attached, just like in your trading platform.
  
  
• Adjust orders by moving them on the chart, just like in your trading platform.
  
  
• Trade your typical session and then jump to the next session to potentially trade multiple sessions in one day.
  
  
• Control the speed at which price bars form. Keep it real, or increase speed to get more practice in a shorter amount of time.
  
  
• Adjust the spread to reflect the spread of your broker (or the typical spread in that asset).
  
  
• Watch price waves unfold tick by tick, just like in real trading (with Super Data).
  
  
• Practice dealing with specific problems by rewinding or finding certain scenarios and replaying them. Miss a trade? Rewind and redo it. Doubting a trade, but take it anyway? Rewind and do the right thing. Get immediate feedback on how making the right decisions (following your plan) affects your performance.
  
  
• Measure price moves on the chart using your mouse, just like on MetaTrader on TradingView (measurement tool).
  
  
• Practice/backtest on multiple pairs/charts at the same time. For example, have a EURUSD, USDJPY, and AUDUSD chart open. Click a chart to place a trade. Trade them at the same time.

For a full article and instructional video on how to Set Up Forex Tester once you have it, see Setting Up Forex Tester.

Forex Tester 5 For Practicing Day Trading

Especially for day trading, Forex Tester is the best way I have found to practice. For forex, I haven’t found anything else even remotely close. For stocks and futures, there are some other options, like TradingSim, or NinjaTrader for futures.

I should have gotten Forex Tester many years ago…and I am not sure why I didn’t.

It is the closest thing to live trading out there, with the added benefit of being able to trade multiple sessions in a day. I stop and start practicing at the times when I usually start and stop my actual trading (charts in EST).

If you usually trade for 2 hours/day you can speed it up slightly and trade 2 or 3 of those 2-hour sessions in a couple of hours.

I have been trading for 18 years. I know my strategies work. But you may not have the same confidence.

Forex Tester lets you go back and see how the strategies worked in 2018, 2011, and 2021…and more importantly, you get to build your confidence in all sorts of different market conditions.

In March 2020, the EURUSD was moving nearly 200 pips a day. In January 2020, it was moving 45 pips per day.

In December 2022 the stocks I’m trading are moving 10% a day. In some months I’ve been hard-pressed to find a few stocks that are moving 6% per day.

If you want to trade successfully, you need to be able to trade in changing conditions…because conditions always change. If it is quiet, big movement will come again. If it is volatile, quiet times will come. Trends turn to ranges, ranges turn to whipsaw movement, and sometimes we have beautiful clean movement. But no single condition lasts for long. Practice navigating them all so you are ready.

Use Tick Data or 1-Minute Data

Replay simulators generally offer tick data or 1-minute data (or possibly even a larger increment).

We need tick data. It resembles real trading. Trading 1-minute full-formed candles is ok for spotting patterns but not for practicing the timing of entries and managing trades in real-time.

I highly recommend the Forex Tester LifeTime Subscription with Super Data. If you plan on being a trader for more than a year or two (it takes most people that long be profitable…but hopefully your journey will be quicker with being able to practice a lot) then it is by far the cheapest option. A one-time cost with no other fees after that.

Get 10% off using coupon code TRADETHATSWING10.

Lifetime Subscription with Super Data includes:

• No costs after the initial payment. Huge savings over monthly or yearly subscriptions.
  
  
• High-quality tick data that mimics real trading (basic data doesn’t).
  
  
• See when major news announcements are occurring on the chart (just like we want to be aware of with real trading).
  
  
• Daily updates to data (basic data is updated monthly), so you can trade yesterday’s session again if you want to.
  
  
• 21 years of forex tick data, download whatever data you want and trade it. Also lots of historical data on stocks, futures, and crypto.
  
  
• The ability to fine-tune your system so you make more money with your actual trading: priceless.

Other Ways to Practice Day Trading Forex

I like Forex Tester 5. I think it is the best way to practice on as close-to-real-conditions as possible.

There are other ways to practice:

• Day trade at your allotted time each day. Every day trader does this. You may be trading with real money or in a demo account. But if you are practicing something, you only get that one session to practice it before having to wait till the next day to practice it again.
  
  
• Marking trade setups on historical charts. This is great when learning to spot patterns or when first learning a strategy. It is the first step. But the candles are full-formed. It helps with spotting patterns but it doesn’t help with practicing entry timing or calculating stop losses, profit targets, or position sizes on the fly.
  
  
• Trading a 1-minute chart Replay like on TradingView. Similar to looking at historical charts, TradingView offers a 1-minute chart replay. It’s great when first learning a strategy to spot patterns, but candles are produced one-by-one fully formed. It does not allow for precision entries. Historical data is also limited on small time frames like the 1-minute chart.
  
  In real trading, we need to time our entries. At least for my methods, I’m entering when my signal occurs, not when candles complete. So I need to see the price action unfold in order to get the best entry I can. Once you can spot the pattern/trade setups, then it is time to start practicing with tick data on a live demo account or on tick data replay like Forex Tester.

Never Stop Practicing Day Trading

As traders, we need to keep our edge. Trading is a hierarchy. We need to be better than others on average. If our performance starts slipping our money will go into someone else’s pocket. Period. It’s cutthroat. It doesn’t matter if we used to practice a lot; if we stop doing our homework and stop working on our game, other traders will take our money.

I have been doing this 18 years and I still constantly review my charts, look for ways to improve, and now with Forex Tester, I’m practicing a bit extra every day. Fine-tuning the things that I didn’t like in my real trading sessions.

Forex Tester Software Compatability

Forex Tester 5 runs on PC, but will work on a Mac with some tweaks.

Here is what Forex Tester says about running the software on a Mac:

There is no Mac version of the software for now, but you can create a virtual machine with Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion and install Windows on it.

The web offers numerous articles with regards to how to handle this task.

You’ll then be able to use Forex Tester at full strength.

You can contact our support team for any technical assistance.

https://forextester.com/faq

Practicing Forex Swing Trading

Forex Tester is also great for practicing swing trading.

I still recommend the Super Data with a Life Time subscription.

This way you get the most accurate data for testing and practicing your strategies.

News is marked on the charts.

You get access to data on 86 forex pairs.

Is Forex Tester Good for Practicing Stock Day Trading?

They offer a limited selection of stocks. If you trade the same stock all the time, and they offer data on it, the software will work well for you. I day trade the most volatile stocks on the market each week. Most of those stocks are not available on Forex Tester. They offer roughly 5 years of data on 369 US stocks, 142 EU stocks, 48 UK stocks, and 8 Canadian stocks.

Is Forex Tester Good for Practicing Futures Day Trading?

Yes, they offer a limited number of futures (NG and UU), but they offer a wide range of CFDs on various futures contracts. And you can set the spread so they mimic the movement of futures. They offer 22 commodities, 20 metals, and 111 indices. Most of the available data goes back to at least 2017, and usually 2014 or earlier.

Is Forex Tester Good for Practicing Crypto Day Trading?

Forex Tester 5 has crypto data on six cryptocurrencies with data going back to 2017 and 2019.

Forex Tester 5 Discount Code

Use this link and discount code TRADETHATSWING10 to get 10% off your Forex Tester 5 purchase

By Cory Mitchell, CMT

Disclaimer: Nothing in this article is personal investment advice. Trading is risky and can result in substantial losses, even more than deposited if using leverage. This article contains affiliate links and this site may be compensated if you purchase a product via the links.