how long to stay on demo

In addition to leverage, a proper money management is quite important. The trade must have a risk / reward ratio of at least 2:1 at the opening time.

Everyone focuses on that magic 2:1 risk reward ratio, but it's not really the ultimate key to profitability by itself.

Imagine system that always has 2:1 and it loses 75% of the time. That means for every $2 earned, $3 are lost.

Now, imagine a system with a 1:2 ratio and it loses only 25% of the time. For ever $2 lost, $3 are earned.

I suggest starting out with a system that's at least 1.:1 with at least 50% winning trades. Then see what can be done to either improve either of those numbers to take the system from breakeven to profitable.
 
A lot of people will tell you not to bother with perfecting trading on a demo account. IMO if you cant find a way to trade profitably on a demo account you have little chance of being successful in a live account. And sure, Pharoah says you might lose 2 pips on each trade on a live account but the logic is simple: Why would you have any success on a real account with real emotions if you have had no real success on a demo account?

Good luck!
 
Unless you are a genius, minimum 6 months to a year on just demo. I still use demo to test things. Start with $100 or $200 real money. Money management is everything. It won't make you money, but it will keep you in the game. When it gets crazy and you are loosing a lot, close all trades and orders and stop for a bit. Regroup, even a year later if you need to. At some point you won't need to ever put more money in. If in doubt, trade the minimum lot amount until doubt is gone. I still trade on holidays and news days on paper or demo. Some systems work on demo, but not on a real account, like a lot of scalpers. My system works fine on either and I test in Excel. I use Excel for my calculations so it is convenient. I have found that every pair is different. Every day of the week is different. Every pair has it's best hour to trade from. I guess old timers already know this.

If you had money to burn, demo only a month or so. Make all your stupid mistakes on demo. Put money in real right away, but be ready to put more. This would be fastest, but you could loose all you put in for a while.
 
A lot of people will tell you not to bother with perfecting trading on a demo account. IMO if you cant find a way to trade profitably on a demo account you have little chance of being successful in a live account. And sure, Pharoah says you might lose 2 pips on each trade on a live account but the logic is simple: Why would you have any success on a real account with real emotions if you have had no real success on a demo account?

Good luck!

I totally agree with your thinking, no matter it is demo or live, you should be success since that means you can control your trades, your account.
 
i think yo should hold demo account for about six month and then after some experience yo can go to real account.
 
i have just did about 3 month demo account and i found that miracly my trading strategy working
hence this is why now i am thinking my experience tho not good but i am looking for a good broker giving me ecn account service so i can give a try to the forex business
 
After a few months of demo trading you can open a real account with small amount of money and start trading on it to get used to the psychology of trading and loosing real money. You can continue trading on both demo and real accounts. Only deposit more money on the real account if you have a working strategy, can stay in the game with small account and are able to stick to your money management rules.
 
Back
Top