---
title: 'Can I paper trade with practice money?'
description: 'Yes. Every signed-in account gets a free paper account with $100,000 of practice money. Trade CME futures, US stocks, forex and many crypto markets at live prices from the Trade panel. Nothing reaches an exchange.'
category: trading-brokers
kind: faq
keywords:
  [
    paper trading,
    paper account,
    practice,
    practice money,
    demo,
    demo account,
    simulated trading,
    simulator,
    sim,
    virtual money,
    reset paper,
    starting balance,
    cme futures,
    futures,
    stocks,
    forex,
    slippage,
    fees,
  ]
updatedAt: '2026-10-28'
---

# Can I paper trade with practice money?

**Yes, for free.** Every signed-in account has a paper account that starts with $100,000 of practice money. It trades at live prices from the same **Trade** panel and order ticket as a real account, and no order ever reaches an exchange.

## Start paper trading

1. Open a chart in a market that paper trading covers (see the next section), such as NQ or ES futures.
2. Press `T`, or open the **Panels** menu and pick **Trade**.
3. The paper account starts by itself. The line under the market name says **Paper** and the exchange, for example **Paper · CME**.
4. Place orders as you would on a real account. The [trade ticket guide](/learn/core/terminal/trade-ticket) walks through the form.

Your paper orders and positions show on the chart like real ones. **Positions & orders**, at the foot of the **Trade** panel, opens the full list.

## Which markets you can paper trade

- **CME Group futures**: the main equity index, currency, Treasury, energy, metal, grain and crypto contracts, such as ES, NQ, YM, RTY, CL and GC, and their micros.
- **US stocks** priced in US dollars.
- **Forex** pairs quoted in US dollars, such as EUR/USD, and **commodities** priced in US dollars.
- **Crypto** priced in dollars or dollar stablecoins: spot pairs on Binance, Bybit, Coinbase, OKX, Bitstamp, Bitfinex, Gate and Upbit, and USDT- or USDC-margined swaps on OKX and Gate.

Paper trading is not offered on Binance and Bybit perpetual charts, or on Hyperliquid and Deribit charts. There the **Trade** panel trades your real account. On a symbol paper trading cannot price, the ticket says **Paper trading does not cover this symbol.**

## How paper orders fill

- A market order fills at the live bid or ask, plus 1 tick of slippage by default. A limit order fills at your price when the market reaches it. A stop market order fills at its trigger price plus slippage.
- Default fees: $2.50 per contract per side on futures, 0.05% taker and 0.02% maker on crypto, and nothing on stocks, forex and commodities.
- Leverage is fixed for each kind of market: 20x on futures and commodities, 10x on crypto, 50x on forex, and none on stocks. There is no leverage control.
- There are no funding payments, no liquidations and no contract expiry.
- On CME futures without a real-time CME data subscription, paper fills use the delayed price, and the ticket says so.
- A market order needs a fresh price, so it is refused while no prices come in, for example when the market is closed. A limit order waits until the price reaches it.

## Reset the account or change the starting balance

There is no deposit button. To start again with a different amount:

1. Press the cog in the order ticket to open **Trade settings**, and scroll to **Paper trading**. You can also open super search with `Ctrl/Cmd+J` and type "paper trading".
2. Set the **Starting balance**, from $100 to $100,000,000.
3. Press **Reset paper account**, then **Reset now**. Positions, orders, history, trade notes and chart snapshots are wiped, with no undo, and the account starts again at the starting balance.

The same group sets the fees and slippage: **Fee per contract, per side**, **Fee per share, per side**, **Crypto fee (taker / maker, bps)** and **Slippage (ticks)**.

## See your results

Press **Positions & orders** and open the **Portfolio** tab. For the paper account it shows the account value, the P&L curve, **Stats** (win rate, profit factor, average win and loss, max drawdown) and a **History** of your trades. Click a trade to see the chart as it stood when the order filled, and add a **Note** on why you took it. More in [Is there a trading journal?](/learn/faq/trading-brokers/trading-journal)

## Good to know

- Your paper account and its settings live in this browser. Another browser or device starts its own paper account, and clearing this site's data erases it.
- Place paper orders from one browser tab at a time. Other tabs show the account but cannot place or change orders.
- Bar replay has no practice trading. The paper account always trades at live prices, never at replayed candles.