I have been studying the stock market for a long time and learning the different strategies to figure out what works for me. I just recently Opened up a paper trading account with TD Ameritrade's paper trading account using ThinkOrSwim. I set the starting balance at $25,000 because that is what I will start out with once I get comfortable with the platform and become more familiar trading. My question is, for anyone who has used ThinkorSwim's paper trading account, how different is paper trading with ThinkOrSwim versus an actual money account?

I started trading paper money at the beginning of the week 8/17 and so far I am up like $10,000. For some reason I have found it easy to trade and make big profits, even as a beginner, but something tells me the only reason I am able to make such a profit is because even though your paper trading real stocks, it is because it is not a real account and not affecting actual market fluctuations. 

Is the execution of the buys and sells on the paper acct way different from real money buys and sells? I have noticed no matter how much I buy or sell, It gets filled right away and all at once. 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated so I can have a much better understanding of what to expect when I start using real money. 

Thanks,

Rolani