Paper Trading vs Live Trading

Ezana supports two portfolio modes side-by-side:

• Paper trading (default): Practice investing with $100,000 of virtual cash. No real money moves. Paper trading is for education — to learn how markets work, test strategies, and build discipline.
• Live trading: Connect a real brokerage via Plaid (read-only), or open an Ezana brokerage account powered by Alpaca. Your real positions then drive the dashboard.

Paper trading on Ezana does not place real orders anywhere. It exists purely inside the app. Any performance figures you see in paper mode are simulated — they are not advice, forecasts, or guarantees of real-world returns.

When you connect a real brokerage, Ezana automatically uses your live holdings for portfolio metrics. Your paper portfolio is still accessible but the dashboard reflects your real account by default. You can always reset the paper portfolio in Settings → Account.