My Opinion on Paper Trading

I believe paper trading is essential for a new investors, traders, and anybody trying to learn about how the stock market works. It shows you the basics of a securities exchange, the ins and outs of how to buy and sell. You can even learn some of the technical terms and stock market lingo along your paper trading journey.
I should say that paper trading can be much less taxing mentally. When you're playing with fake money your emotions will not get the best of you. With paper trading there is minimal panic selling and panic buying. which is a rookie mistake.
I started paper trading before trading with actual money. The outcomes were much different between the two. When real money is involved the psychology of investing and trading is much different when you're making a lot of real money or losing a lot of real money. Greed and fear typically don't play as much of a factor when paper trading is compared to trading with real cash.
Basically as a beginner when I would paper trade I would do fairly well. So I told myself, "I think I can handle trading with real money." That was not the case. As soon as I would start losing real money I would feel the stress of real life weighing down on me. My brain would be full of panic so I would panic sell. Or there would be many instances which I would panic buy because of the FOMO.
Paper trading is much different than trading with actual currency.
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