Hey everyone,

I’m curious to see how different traders handle the demo incubation phase before going live.
The goal isn’t to decide what’s right or wrong — just to share, understand, and improve how each of us approaches this step.

If you’d like to take part, simply copy (or “quote”) the questions below and check (✅) the options that match your workflow.
Even short replies are useful to get a clearer view of what’s common (and what’s not) in our community.

⸻

1. Do you use a demo incubation phase in your workflow?
☐ Yes☐ No☐ Sometimes / depends on the strategy

1.1. If not, why?
(Free text answer)

2. Average duration of the demo incubation phase:
☐ <1 month☐ 1–3 months☐ 4–6 months☐ >6 months

3. Average number of strategies incubated at the same time:
☐ <20☐ 21–50☐ 51–100☐ >100

4. Broker or environment used for incubation:
☐ Same broker as live trading
☐ Different broker but similar conditions
☐ Any broker (just for technical testing)

5. Main criteria to promote a strategy to live:
☐ Profit factor
☐ Win rate
☐ Drawdown
☐ Consistency with backtest
☐ Other (please specify in comments)

6. Do you use incubation only to test logic, or also to check live robustness (spread, execution, slippage)?
☐ Only logic☐ Both☐ Depends on the EA type

7. Do you update strategies during incubation (e.g. rebalancing, optimization, filters)?
☐ Never☐ Occasionally☐ After each new data cycle

8. Do you have fixed thresholds to decide when to promote to live or discard?
☐ Yes, which one: ………………
☐ No
☐ Variable depending on the group

9. How do you monitor performance during incubation?
☐ Manually (Excel, charts, logs)
☐ Dashboard / automated tool
☐ Python (custom scripts)
☐ Artificial intelligence / automated analysis
☐ Just by general observation

10. In one sentence: what have you learned or improved thanks to demo incubation?
(Open answer)

⸻

Goal of this thread: gather experiences and ideas to improve how we test and qualify strategies before going live.
All input is welcome — even short answers help map different workflows in the community.

If at least 50 people participate, I’ll compile the results into a community summary post.

⸻