# Your first week: a SIM practice plan > A day-by-day SIM plan for your first week with Scalpel: keys, sizing, stops, scanning and review in Analytics, so you go live with habits, not hope. Source: https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/first-week-in-sim Guide 14.5, Tips and tricks. Beginner, 5 min read. Checked with Scalpel 1.12.8 on 2026-10-15. By Scalpel Team. **In short:** Spend your first week in SIM learning one thing a day: the keys on day 1, sizing by risk on day 2, stops on day 3, the scanner and intel on day 4, and a full session under a daily loss limit on day 5. Review every day in Analytics, and judge the week by your process (losers held to about 1R, no moved stops, the daily limit respected), not by the P&L. Go live only when that process is boring. SIM fills against the real Level 2 book, so a week there teaches the parts of scalping that hurt most to learn with money: pressing the right key under pressure, sizing the same way every time, and taking the stop. It will not teach you to be profitable, and nothing guarantees that: fast small-cap trading carries a significant risk of loss, it is very difficult, and many people who try it lose money. What a good SIM week gives you is habits. **Before you start:** - Scalpel installed, licensed and connected, with live market data ([guide 1.4](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/connect-interactive-brokers), [guide 1.6](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/ibkr-market-data-for-day-trading)). - [Guide 1.7](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/first-session-in-sim) done: your first SIM trade. ## Every morning Before each practice session: 1. Check **MODE** reads **SIM**. 2. Glance at **DAILY P&L**: in SIM it and the daily loss limit start again at New York midnight by themselves. Reset the SIM account (Settings > Risk > **Reset SIM account**, then **Confirm reset to $25000**, with your own balance) only when you want the balance back at your start figure. Your Analytics journal is kept. 3. Note one thing you are practising today, and nothing else. ## The plan ### 1. Day 1: the keys Set **SIM start ($)** in Settings > Risk to your real account size and reset: SIM uses and saves the balance shown on the button. Pick your IBKR commission plan on the same tab ([guide 6.3](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/commissions)). Leave the default share presets for today. Load a liquid, slow stock and spend the session on the keys alone: `Shift`+`1` to buy, `Ctrl`+`X` to sell half, `B` to move the stop to breakeven, `Ctrl`+`Z` to get out. Listen to the callouts until "Filled, level one" and "Out, half" mean something without looking ([guide 10.1](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/voice-callouts)). Press `?` whenever you forget a key. Practise `Esc` to flatten everything, so you know what it does before you need it. *Screenshot: The cheatsheet: press ? any time. Esc closes it.* Goal: 20 round trips with no wrong key. ### 2. Day 2: size by risk Switch the order bar's method to **Risk (Cents)** and set four dollar risks in Settings > Sizing that suit your account ([guide 4.2](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/trade-fixed-dollar-risk), [guide 14.4](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/small-account-setup)). Before each press, read the size line above the button and nudge the **Stop** stepper for the stock. Set the fat-finger and max-position caps to your account ([guide 7.2](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/fat-finger-and-position-caps)). Goal: every loser today costs about the same dollars. ### 3. Day 3: stops and targets Watch the red working stop and the green take-profit draw on the chart after every fill. Try each way of managing them: drag the stop on the chart, press `B` once you are up, press `Shift`+`T` to trail a runner, and let at least a few trades stop out by themselves ([guide 5.1](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/how-stops-work), [guide 5.3](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/breakeven-and-trailing-stops)). Notice that Scalpel watches the stop: in LIVE it only works while Scalpel runs and is connected. Goal: no stop moved down, ever. ### 4. Day 4: scanner and intel Get up for the pre-market. Put a desk on **SCAN** with the IBKR scanner, and follow the routine in [guide 14.2](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/premarket-routine): shortlist names with a catalyst chip, skip names with red dilution chips, load two or three on trader desks. Let the dilution entry guard stop you once, so you know what it feels like ([guide 9.7](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/dilution-entry-guard)). Goal: every trade today has a reason you can say out loud. ### 5. Day 5: a full session under a daily limit Set **Daily loss ($)** to what you would accept losing in a real day, with **Auto-flatten on daily loss** on ([guide 7.1](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/daily-loss-limit)). Run the whole routine from the pre-market to your stop time. If the **RISK LOCK** trips, stop for the day: do not click **Resume trading**, and do not switch mode to get around it. Goal: the plan followed start to finish. ### 6. Weekend: review in Analytics Pick **Analytics** in the header's **VIEW** picker ([guide 6.4](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/analytics)). Look at three things: 1. **R DISTRIBUTION**: are your losers in **-1..0**? Bars further left are stops you moved, ignored or overstayed. 2. **NET P&L BY HOUR (ET)** under **Breakdowns**: which hours pay you, and which take it back? 3. **BY SYMBOL**: is one lucky ticker carrying the week? *Screenshot: Breakdowns after a SIM week: by symbol, the R distribution, and net P&L by New York hour. Demo data.* **Goals** grades your win rate and payoff. After one week it is a curiosity, not a verdict. *Screenshot: Goals after a SIM week. A grade on 20 trades says little; keep practising. Demo data.* ## Are you ready for LIVE? Not after one week, for most people. Look for these, over weeks: - You never pressed the wrong key, and you never had to look for one. - Your losers are close to 1R, and the R distribution has almost nothing left of **-1..0**. - You took the daily loss limit as the end of the day, every time it tripped. - Your results are spread over many trades and symbols, not one lucky run. When they are true, work through the checklist in [guide 6.2](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/go-live) and start live with your smallest button. Expect live fills and live nerves to be harder than SIM, and keep coming back to SIM to practise anything new. ## Questions **How long should I paper trade before going live?** Until your process is consistent, which for most people takes more than a week. Judge it by how you trade (fixed risk, stops honoured, daily limit respected), not by SIM profit. **Should I reset SIM every day?** You do not need to. The header's DAILY P&L and the daily loss limit count from New York midnight in SIM, as in LIVE. Reset when you want the balance back at your start figure. Your Analytics journal is not cleared by a reset. **Is SIM harder or easier than live trading?** Mostly easier. SIM fills against the real book and a stop-out fills where the market really is, but your orders do not move the book, nobody is queued ahead of you, and there is no fear. Treat good SIM results as a minimum, not a forecast. **Can I practise in the pre-market in SIM?** Yes. SIM fills from 04:00 to 20:00 ET on trading days, against the live pre-market book.