Paper trading teaches platform mechanics but not real trading because it removes the emotional and mental stakes that come with real money. Kardec Trader argues you should move to live trading or backtesting once you understand the basics, since paper accounts don't prepare you for the psychology of actual risk.
Start off with paper trading, but also keep in mind that paper trading is good for a certain period of time just to understand and get a feel of the markets, get a feel of the platform. But paper trading itself is not real trading. Like it will not allow you to take the information you've learned and apply it to the real markets because your emotions and your mental blocks are not involved. Once you have the education component down, then maybe you've paper traded. Go and apply these methods to the real market and see if it's working. And if you don't want to apply it with real money, you can always go and back test.
