Paper Trading Done Right: Why Simulation Details Matter

Paper trading becomes misleading when every order fills at the last traded price with no latency, no spread, and no liquidity constraint. That creates confidence in numbers that could never survive real execution.

Chimera models spread, volume-scaled slippage, funding, cooldowns, and risk vetoes in paper mode. A strategy has to survive the same control layer that would govern live trading.

Paper mode is not a promise of future profit. It is a way to test operational behavior: whether a bot waits, whether a signal is vetoed, whether a position is sized correctly, and whether the user understands the system before live capital is involved.