how long to stay on demo

[RachelEB]

In essence trade demo as long as you need to.

Personally if your brand new, demo is about learning how the software works and to use it initially. Then to practice as you learn the skills of trading and finally when you start developing your strategy, use it to test thoroughly that your trading edge is effective. How long that takes each person is an individual thing.

Don't jump into a massive account either, as trading live with real money doesn't just switch over as the human brain is another hurdle to overcome. Take on a small account and compound it up so you learn to control your emotions as you go.

 

[georgequayle]

Hi there.

I'm still a newbie. I've been reading through a lot of posts and the consensus is to definitely demo trade before even thinking about using or losing my cash. For those avid traders, how long did you trade on a demo account before moving over to a live account. I know I can't base my timeline on any other individual's experience....but would just like to hear a few suggestions

until youre comfortably making profits

 

[momo3HC]

6 month is not enough for any method. You have to demo any method for at least 1 full financial year. There are times when the market is behaving exactly like you want but there are times when it goes totally wrong.

Other way is to back test it but i`m not really sure how efficient it is.

 

[bigdolly]

I have been trading on demo for 6 months before I went live. I think it is sufficient time to learn functionality and create your own basic trading strategy and money management rules.

 

[TJ Forex]

As long as you need, and as long as it takes to become profitable.

 

[walpants]

there just isnt a time limit you can put on it, everyone is different, i went live with a small account quite quickly but tbh im still not really profitable so maybe i made the wrong decision

 

[RachelEB]

until youre comfortably making profits

Exactly that!

 

[bigdolly]

I think 3 months is enough especially if you learn lessons from your mistakes. But still demo platform is useful to backtest trading strategies I should say it's a really powerful tool if you understand significance of statistics and probability in trading.

 

[nahiyar]

Of course 3 months are enough to learn forex if you do it seriously. The rest of the things are up to your passion. You can learn many lessons even from your loss. Actually, when a trader is really concerned to get knowledge and skill he analyzes everything related to his field. Here test of many strategies and systems is possible you can do mistakes to handle them in future when think you have to mould yourself according to the market situations.

 

[Passiontrader]

Demo's are for getting comfortable with and learning platform. Not for learning how to trade.The fills you get are from your own pc (demo application) not from any Exchange. Furthermore, there are no consequences when trading with virtual money. So when you do go live, the Market and Trading psychology will eat you up, and spit you out!