The psychological gap between paper and real fills is brutal

honestly the worst part of learning options isn't the greeks, it's the execution slippage when u actually flip the switch to real money I spent like two months running iron condors and watching theta decay on a trading game just to make sure I actually understood how the mechanics worked before risking my own cash. paper fills are just so generous. You click a button and boom, you get filled right at the mid price without a second thought Then you open your actual brokerage app, try to leg into a simple SPY credit spread at 9:35 AM and the market makers just absolutely eat you alive on the bid-ask. ngl watching my real P&L instantly go negative just from paying the spread completely threw off my risk tolerance today. You can memorize all the pricing models you want but nothing really prepares u for the panic of watching a wide spread eat your premium before the underlying even moves an inch just venting because i panic closed a position early today purely out of emotion and left like $150 on the table. the math is easy, the psychology is just exhausting