The reason it’s called a “paper trade” is that back in the day before computers, aspiring investors would write their trades out on paper to practice before risking it in the real stock market.
The biggest pro of paper trading is that you risk zero money! If you wanted to buy a thousand shares of Apple in real life, you’d need to spend over $100,000!!!
A lot of new investors will read about paper trading and laugh at it. “Why bother trading if you’re not going to make any money?” That is the wrong approach.