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Trading in a practice account is the 21st-century form of paper trading. Paper trading is writing down trades on paper based on real-time market prices, but not having any real money at risk. Practice accounts are a souped-up version of paper trading - you only have to click and deal, and the trading platform does all the recording for you.

Whether you're trading in an online forex practice account or paper trading on stock quotes from the morning newspaper, be sure to keep in mind that your results aren't real, because you never had any real money at stake.

Think of it this way: If you make a handshake bet with a friend on a sports game, you're probably not going to be too concerned with whether you win or lose. You may not even watch the game. But if you bet $50 or $100 on the game, you're probably going to be watching the whole game and cheering and yelling while you do. The difference: Your emotions come alive when real money is on the line.

Practice accounts are a great way to experience the forex market up close and personal. They're also an excellent way to test-drive all the features and functionality of a broker's platform. However, the one thing you can't simulate is the emotions of trading with real money. To get the most out of your practice-account experience, you have to treat your practice account as if it were real money, as much as you can.