Don't concern yourself with missed opportunities, IE: taking practice trades instead of 'real' ones do not cost you money - they can often save you from losing too much. Always remember that good trade opportunities constantly present themselves throughout the day... there is always another trade to profit from.
Test trades can help get your "FEEL" up to speed.
Here's four examples from the pre-major market hours...they are back-to-back, spanning 40 minutes...
The left hand charts show the order entry, the right hand show the results.
What was learned -- decent signals and patterns were working but they did not produce great reversal runs.
