How long should the demo-to-live size ramp take on gold?

A typical ramp runs four to six weeks across three or four discrete stages, each gated by a minimum trade count and a check against the demo baseline rather than by a fixed calendar date.

Why do live gold results come in worse than demo even with the same rules?

Mainly execution: live slippage during the 13:30 UTC data window and the 21:00–23:00 UTC rollover is typically larger than demo feeds simulate, and real stakes change trader behaviour in ways no demo account can reproduce.

What is the single most useful comparison between demo and live?

Expectancy on trades tagged as strictly on-plan, compared side by side. If on-plan trades still track the demo baseline while the overall number looks worse, the issue is rule-set adherence rather than the strategy itself.

Should I go straight to my full intended risk per trade once live?

No. Start at a fraction — commonly 25% of the target risk per trade — and increase only after each stage clears a trade-count gate and shows results consistent with the demo baseline.

When should I step back from live to demo?

When on-plan expectancy diverges sharply from the demo baseline, off-plan trades exceed roughly 10% of the sample, or a pre-agreed drawdown threshold is reached — decide these triggers in writing before going live, not during an active drawdown.

Is a live/demo gap always a sign the strategy is broken?

No. A modest, consistent gap fully explained by realistic slippage and spread is expected. The concerning pattern is a gap that widens with position size or concentrates in trades where the trader deviated from the written rules.

MOVING FROM DEMO TO LIVE ON GOLD

Moving a gold strategy from demo to live introduces real execution costs that demo accounts typically understate — slippage during the 13:30 UTC CPI/NFP window and the 21:00–23:00 UTC rollover, and behavioural change once real money rather than a resettable number is at risk.

A staged size ramp across four to six weeks, moving from roughly 25% to 100% of target risk per trade in gated steps, exposes both the strategy and the trader to progressively larger real stakes without repeating the discipline failures the demo phase was designed to catch.

The most diagnostic comparison is expectancy on trades tagged as strictly on-plan: if that figure still matches the demo baseline while the overall live result looks worse, the gap is a rule-adherence problem rather than a broken strategy, and the correct response is a temporary step back to a smaller stage or to demo, using triggers agreed in writing before going live.