Profitable trading requires two things you can't shortcut: experience and confidence. Experience means you've seen enough market scenarios that nothing surprises you. Confidence means you trust your strategy because you've watched it work—over and over.

Paper trading is the fastest way to build both. Without risking a dollar, you can test dozens of strategies, develop feel for different market conditions, and master the mechanics of entries, exits, and position sizing. You'll make mistakes—lots of them—and each one becomes a lesson instead of a loss.

The traders who survive their first years aren't guessing. They've already made their beginner errors in a simulator. By the time real money is on the line, execution is second nature and doubt is gone. Paper trading doesn't guarantee success, but skipping it almost guarantees failure.