Thoughts on simulation traders

Paper trading is great for learning, on TOS you can even rewind it and see how a trade would have played out. I think they give you 100k play money. I would only use this as a learning tool because it's not truly real time, I don't care what anyone claims, It's behind. Even if it's a few seconds. If you are trading that will make all the difference in the world. Set up a long term portfolio before you even consider trading. If I trade it's swing trading shit I don't mind owning long term if the market goes tits up. I learned this lesson on Xbox way before I got in to the market playing poker. You are more inclined to do stupid shit with make believe money, than you would when you have skin in the game. So you may be looking amazing on paper, but when the rubber meets the road. Will you be ready to pull the trigger. I wouldn't consider trading anything until you have a solid base of stocks, and an education to back that up. Took me a solid year to learn the Greeks. Well took me a month or so to learn them, the rest of the year was grasping what I needed to use and not use according to my style.