Quick answers
- Is paper trading free? Yes. Paper accounts cost nothing and never create real charges.
- Do paper trades use real prices? Previews and simulated fills use live production bid/ask quotes checked on the server. If a fresh quote is unavailable, the trade is refused rather than filled at a made-up price.
- Do I need a brokerage account? No. You only need a CNKTID account. Link a brokerage later if you decide to copy for real.
- Will paper results match live results? Not exactly. Real fills depend on liquidity, timing and broker acceptance, so live results can be worse than practice.
Step 1: Create your account
- Open guided paper setup. If you are new, sign up, accept the disclosures and confirm your email; you return straight to the setup.
- If a trader sent you an invitation link, it opens the same setup. An invitation never grants trader access, a live subscription or any payment.
Step 2: Create a paper account
- Name the account (for example "SPX practice") and choose a starting balance. It is private to you; traders and other members cannot see it.
- You can keep several paper accounts to compare strategies or allocation sizes side by side.
Step 3: Fund it and adjust the balance
- Pick any practice balance from $0 to $10,000,000. Match it to the money you would really use so sizing results are meaningful.
- Use Adjust balance to add or remove practice funds at any time. Funding changes are tracked separately and never count as profit or loss.
- Reset clears the account to start a clean test; delete removes it entirely.
Step 4: Pick a real strategy and allocation
- Browse published strategies and compare their public results, holding times and fees.
- Save a practice plan with a dollar amount, a percentage of the paper balance, or both; the smaller one applies, exactly like live copying.
- Contracts are rounded down. If your allocation can't cover one contract, that trade is skipped—a useful early warning that your planned amount is too small.
Step 5: Run trades and watch performance
- Place practice trades from the paper dashboard, or receive simulated copies when you run a trader's paper copy test.
- The performance dashboard shows closed profit over time, open positions valued at the bid side, and a live session price chart.
- Practice the exit editor too: set and move take-profit and stop-loss levels so you know how protective exits behave before real money is involved.
Step 6: See what it would cost for real
- Open paper billing to see simulated monthly results and the performance fee each strategy would charge at its current rate, including loss carryforward.
- Example: $500 of simulated realized profit at a 10% fee would mean a $50 fee. A losing month shows no fee and carries the loss forward. Nothing is billed.
Moving from practice to live copying
- When you are ready, follow the Tastytrade copy-trading guide to link your own brokerage. New subscriptions start in Co-pilot, so you still approve every opening trade.
- Paper results never qualify you for anything and never enter your real returns, public results or fees.
- Questions? Read the options copy-trading guide or the FAQ. Simulated results do not predict real results; options can lose value quickly.
Trading options involves risk, including loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. CNKTID is a software platform, not a broker-dealer or investment adviser, and is not affiliated with TastyTrade or any company named on this page.