Almost all trading platforms provide demo accounts. Most traders’ believe that demo accounts are only suitable for novices. However, having a demo account is extremely useful to seasoned traders practice, just as it is to beginner traders who need to master the full functionalities of the trading platform. Most people use the demo account to learn how to start trading, which is fine, but the account can do so much more.
There are many ways to trade the markets, and the demo account allows investors to practice trading on the online platform identical to the real-time trading environment. Demo accounts typically have real-time quotes and market price changes without requiring clients to deposit real funds to trade. Beginner traders can use such accounts to gain experience and trading knowledge without exposing themselves to the risk of losing their hard-earned money. The demo account is good for novices to train themselves how to become a trader.
With a demo trading account, you can:
- Simulate the trading that happens in a live market environment
- Get to know more about the different types of orders and become familiar with how various trading functions are accomplished.
- Test your trading abilities without risking actual money.
- Build and practice various trading methods and strategies.
Beginners preparing to start live trading should use the demo account to sharpen their trading skills and attend the trading webinars provided by brokers. Jumping directly from theoretical knowledge to a live trading environment without demo trading takes a substantial unnecessary risk in your trading journey. Demo trading lets you familiarise yourself with the trading interface and operating functions, including buy/sell orders and stop-loss/take-profit orders. It also allows you to become familiar with the characteristics of highly volatile market conditions. You can also learn how to use various technical indicators to test and find the best trading strategy for you. Most novice traders usually require to execute at least 30 demo accounts transactions before entering the live trading market with confidence.
Investors with some experience under their belts often use the demo trading account to test and adjust their trading strategies. Therefore, a demo trading account is often a training ground for the traders to sharpen their trading skills. Investors can develop new ideas and methods to maximise their profits and minimise losses and test these strategies on a demo account before executing them in the live markets. You should test your trading strategies thoroughly on a demo account to help improve your trading skills and optimise your trading strategies.
Demo trading must also follow proper risk management.
You should always follow proper risk management strategies, even when trading on a demo account. We do not recommend haphazard trading on a demo account simply because you risk keeping the lousy trading habits on a live account. Instead, you should follow a step-by-step trading process that implements all the tenets of successful trading on the demo account. It is better to start trading with a small amount of funds to adjust to the live trading environment. You could increase your trading funds once your strategy proves successful to make more significant gains.
Starting with the right mentality will significantly impact your future performance in the live trading environment. Furthermore, the correct use of the demo account for practice helps you build confidence in your trading and develop good habits during live trading.
No one likes to lose money, which means that risk management should always be a top priority when conducting simulated trading. You should keep the risk within tolerable levels so that you are not shaken out of your positions. Being successful in demo trading does not guarantee that you will be profitable in actual trading. However, if your demo trading fails, it could mean that the probability of loss in live trading could be very high.
By opening a demo account with ATFX, you will have up to $50,000 of virtual funds for demo trading. You can choose the scale of the demo funds based on your needs. You can trade more than 100 products in various categories through the MT4 for Mac, PC, iOS, and Android Applications. Traders also have access to various asset classes, including foreign exchange, stocks, indices, and commodities, as well as free MT4 indicators, tools and add-ons.
When you trade with ATFX, you get free trading strategies and market news covering different types of trading products. In addition, we bring you our professional analysis of various assets. For example, ATFX analyses the market conditions each day, including forecasts and target prices of US stocks, Forex pairs, gold, and crude oil. The analysis is an indispensable reference for investors to use when trading the markets daily. For investors at different stages, ATFX also provides the appropriate trading education from elementary to advanced. The market analysis from ATFX’s expert analysts can help investors enrich their trading skills and improve their strategies. In addition, ATFX also provides an economic calendar to help users track the latest economic releases that could affect the products they trade.
To ensure a similar trading experience between the demo account and the real account, the spread, execution speeds and overall trading process on the demo account provided by ATFX are all very close to the trading experience on a live account. When you are ready to trade with real funds, you can open a real account with ATFX to experience the seamless connection between the demo and live trades. You can also use popular trading tools such as Trading Central for free, which most investors recognise as a powerful trading assistant. Trading Central helps you seize trading opportunities through various intelligent signals delivered in real-time to help you make better trading decisions and enhance your trading results.
Download Metatrader 4 account or set up a demo trading account to start trading now!
