Im new to Forex, and using a demo account. My adventures so far

[RahmanSL]

I have a question about the concept of demo accounts,
as a newbie I find that the demo account does not really help me understand the game since its not real money and also because I have some background in gaming so I'm thinking that if its the same, the demo server is "programmed" to make sure we will win more often and then we will think we know the hang of it and when it comes to real money all of a sudden we will start losing.
So, I guess my question is, how can we start trading on real accounts/servers and make sure we won't lose everything on the start?
Can we practice on real account somehow? is that what the bonuses are for?

As mentioned above, you can also get good practice on a Demo account, but make sure you set the Demo account to the same amount as you intent to deposit into your live account....i.e if you plan to trade on a live usd1k account, then practice on a usd1k Demo account too.

Be very careful of bonuses offered by broker as they come attached with all sorts of T&C.....e.g I accepted bonuses from EXNESS for each deposit I made into one of my live account with them, and after some time (forgot how long...but more than a year) when I finally request to withdrawal whatever money I have left in that account, they deducted every single bonuses they ever gave me which amounted to over usd1k.

 

[johnthreadgold]

Hi Guys, thanks for your responses. RE DEMO accounts are they fixed ? My Demo account uses information from Money Map software, and I have compared the information to that of my live account. It is definitely not fixed, although this may not be true of other DEMO accounts.

Also as pointed out earlier it is easier to make money on a demo account than a live one. Let me give you an example. I did the same trade on a DEMO account and a Live account, It was a bounce trade that went wrong. Now I forgot to set a Stop Loss on the Demo account. I had to do some work, so I let the trades run. The real account had hit my 13 pip stop loss. However my Demo account, without a Stop Loss, was showing a 17 Pip Profit. Now I know for sure it would be a false lesson to say, ' OK I wont do a Stop Loss in future', because the trade could have lost a 100 pips or more and wiped out my account. But it is certainly very frustrating. Any thoughts on this would be welcome. Take care and thanks for your posts. John T

 

[Pharaoh]

Sure, you can practice on a real account. In the same way, you can go to police academy and practice no-knock dynamic entry with real bullets. In both cases, doing this without a certain amount of skill is likely to result in unacceptable losses.

My thought is this: I'm not willing to risk money to learn how a platform works. It's too easy to press the wrong buttons while learning.

I'm generally not willing to risk money while testing any new system or strategy. If it fails on demo, then it's going to fail on live. If it works on demo, then it may be worth a careful, small-scale test on live.

You can use a cent account and trade nanolots. That limits your losses. Then again, if you think a broker may be manipulating demos to lure you into funding an account, why wouldn't they manipulate cent accounts to lure you into moving up to a regular account?

No deposit bonuses can be used, but there's still the possibility of manipulation in one direction or another. Also, if you think of the deposit as the broker's money and you aren't at risk, then psychologically, it's similar to a demo.

What you need is a balance - test new things on demo first. If you don't like them, you haven't risked any cash in a deposit. When you find something that looks worthwhile, try it on a small account. If you really want to get your money back, skip bonuses - most of those are traps. If it still shows promise, try it on a somewhat larger account.

 

[johnthreadgold]

I have a question about the concept of demo accounts,
as a newbie I find that the demo account does not really help me understand the game since its not real money and also because I have some background in gaming so I'm thinking that if its the same, the demo server is "programmed" to make sure we will win more often and then we will think we know the hang of it and when it comes to real money all of a sudden we will start losing.
So, I guess my question is, how can we start trading on real accounts/servers and make sure we won't lose everything on the start?
Can we practice on real account somehow? is that what the bonuses are for?

My Demo Account uses live streamed information. I know that it is not programmed, because I also have a live account, and have compared the price action on different pairs. I do not know if this is true of all Demo accounts.

 

[Pharaoh]

Price action between live and demo should look identical or nearly identical. The difference is slippage and requotes on entry and exit.

In some cases, this is reasonable. If price moves suddently and liquidity is low, a demo doesn't care. You can open a minilot or a trade and another for 10,000 lots at the same moment - execution will be identical for both. The real market won't be able to absorb that 10,000 lot trade without partial fills or slippage.

Secondly, malicious software exists that can make sure that you never get positive slippage. It can also execute your order, but delay feedback to you for a few moments. If price moves against you in that time, what you see is that you got negative slippage. It would be very easy to reverse this process for demo accounts - no negative slippage and extra positive slippage delivered.

Similarly, if price in a live account moves an extra pip to touch your SL or holds back a pip to avoid your TP, chances are that you won't notice that the demo account from that broker was only a pip off for a few seconds. In major market movements, this won't matter, but for people scalping with tight stops, it can turn a profitable strategy into a losing one.

 

[johnthreadgold]

hi There. I have ( temporarily) stopped trading on my real account. I did some ( simultaneous) disastrous trades on both my Demo and real ( identical ones) and lost on both. They were poor trades, for a simple reason, it was because I was speculative, ( again) rather than sticking to what I have been taught. So my new plan, is to spend the rest of March, learning to be more disciplined on my demo account. My target, is to make 20 pips per day ( average) over the rest of March. If I can do this, then I will start on a real account again.

Also I have noticed that my life account ( from a different brooker) seems to have higher spreads. On tight trades, these has resulted in me not being able to scrape a profit from an otherwise poor trade. I am thinking of therefor opening a live account with the same broker that I have the practise account from. The information from both the live and demo account will come through Money Map. I am hoping that I can eliminate my bad trading habits, sufficiently over the next month to start trading profitably.
John T

 

[LoRio]

hi There. I have ( temporarily) stopped trading on my real account. I did some ( simultaneous) disastrous trades on both my Demo and real ( identical ones) and lost on both. They were poor trades, for a simple reason, it was because I was speculative, ( again) rather than sticking to what I have been taught. So my new plan, is to spend the rest of March, learning to be more disciplined on my demo account. My target, is to make 20 pips per day ( average) over the rest of March. If I can do this, then I will start on a real account again.

Also I have noticed that my life account ( from a different brooker) seems to have higher spreads. On tight trades, these has resulted in me not being able to scrape a profit from an otherwise poor trade. I am thinking of therefor opening a live account with the same broker that I have the practise account from. The information from both the live and demo account will come through Money Map. I am hoping that I can eliminate my bad trading habits, sufficiently over the next month to start trading profitably.
John T

Respect.
You abandon "witch theories" and focus on the only thing that can change your P+L.
Developing the skill.
If it helps, know that whatever you do constantly ,your brain moves it higher in the hierarchy of your focus.
Notice that the above is about what you DO constantly and not what you worry about constantly.
Imagine the possibilities if you can turn this into a skill.
Seek something you are good at in life without even stressing-thinking - be concious about.
Imagine trading like that.

 

[Froso@FXNET]

Demo account is very interesting we feel good in trading, show good performance and feel we can get much amount in real trading too. If you get lesson from demo you can learn many skills and good planning with demo amount .

 

[nahiyar]

Now I remember demo was very dreaming time period when I did practice on it. I can take high risk and make high profit no fear of loss because it not uses my own amount in trading . However if one is serious he can make good experience of trading with demo . we can do again and again practice after loss too.

 

[EURUSD]

Because demo account not used own money or only as virtual money, will free from emotion pressure, and usually will trade with free, using big lot size also will never worried in trading, and we can compare on real account use own money, usually will scared get loss