How long should I demo before going live?

[Kevin FD]

You learn from trading on demo, but you learn more on your own money. That is the best teacher you will ever have, your money. If you loose money, you know you are wrong, but when you loose on demo account, you don't really feel it. Speaking from my personal experience, I advise you to stay on demo between 5–10 months.

the best teacher is demo for newcomers , its true and i think there is no one who can avoid , but honestly speaking from this teacher we got nothing at the end of the day , the lesion we got from demo practically not works in a real account.

 

[AdamCantor]

never rush the demo.

 

[Beast45]

The correct time span varies from trader to trader. When you think you are able to do well in a demo ac and strategies are turning our to be favourable, you can give it a try with live account. But remember to start it low first and that emotions are also going to effect you when trading with a live account.

 

[hefoba]

hi guys,

Im a newbie to trading and was just wondering how long should I stay in demo before going live?

Just wanting to get ideas from more experienced traders thanks!

You can be profitable in Fx but takes time and a lot of work.
My process to find good systems are the following. Trading is not easy. Time is your friend to avoid losses
Steps for me before I trade a system ( I'm trading some big accounts now)
1-Backtest the system on 1-5 yrs data ( Just filter to find a system that can be ok )
2-Trade "demo" / "Paper" during 6 month
3-Trade live on a small account. ( During this stage will you test if the system works on live accounts )
4-Trade live with more money.
Step 4 is maybe 12 months after step 1.
So my advice uses Backtesting to find systems that may be ok. NOT to decide if you can trade live.
Demo trading will tell and show you if you can trade this system for the long run.
It is like "take a walk 2-3 times a day for 3 months before you buy a dog. maybe you see not so funny walk so often"
Here are my 2 cents. Good luck and do not give up. The process I follow will avoid you loses a lot of money

 

[CavaliereVerde]

One year

 

[Viro Major]

Never past learning the trading platform. Get skin in the game right away. OANDA offers FX minimum lot sizes of 1. Perfect to train.

 

[UJE]

I really don't think in the 21st century anyone should demo trade with the intention of "mastering how to trade". Demo trading should be used only with the plan of mastering the trading platforms and your broker. When you want to start trading fully, you should go up and look for a broker who offers a "Cent Account" and then trade using that broker. By so doing you are not only trading with your real money - in this case, a very small sum with which you would 95% be willing to lose it all since it just a tuition to learn what trading really is and - you will get a chance to involve your emotion into the game. Trading is a game and business, treat it as such. Demo trading offers no clue how your real time trading will be since it takes emotion out of the whole process - which handicaps to the trading process - and makes you not "feel the feeling", you would in a real time account. To cut it all, go check a broker that offers a "Cent Account", deposit in $10, which will appear on the trading platform as 1000cents. Then you can go on to practice your trading strategy knowing you have your real money on the line. Demo trading should be used only for mastering your platform not your trading strategy, as you will likely not behave the same way when you have real money in a live account.

 

[TechnicalTrader123]

The most important thing is not to rush too much. Take your time before you make any decision on when to go live. Do as many backtests as possible and even if you think you backtests are giving successful results, you should till wait and make sure you are absolutely confident about your strategy and only then decide on going live. It is pretty common for newbie traders to face losses early on so do not feel demotivated even if after proper backtests, your actual results are not satisfactory. Trading and understanding the market takes time and lots of effort.

 

[MichaelJohnFX]

Demo should only be used to understand the functionality of a platform. Once you've understood the basic functionality, get trading a live acc as soon as possible. You need skin in the game. Nothing beats trading with real money. Start off small though

 

[Akwin]

i always say demo with multiple brokers for as long as you make consistent profits and develop your own strategies and trading style.

Point well taken, are demo accounts accurate?

 

[HeavLeighGill]

I traded on demo for six months but think the answer varies for everyone. Once you feel confident in your trading abilities and have maintained consistent profits on demo, then you're probably ready!

 

[Farm Yard Forex]

In my opinon until you have sustained evidence to suggest you might be able to at least hold onto your capital on a live acacount.

 

[chgotom]

Don't demo on a 100k account if you can only afford later a real 1-3k account. Your demo should be the same size as your future real account. First of all, you should have a strategy and then stick to it no matter what. The worst thing I have seen are jumpy M1 traders with no strategy gambling big & losing even bigger. And stay away from EA's!

 

[Smith2525]

Just until you are comfortable with using the software correctly.

 

[progix]

Until you learn how to trade and make money from the forex trading.

 

[Jediel wangai]

How to become expert in live and demo account trading

 

[ph_trader]

honestly as long as it takes, i mean no two taraders are the same, some people need less demo trading than others, but one should never do short cuts, trade demo as much as needed till u are comfortable with how things are going

 

[Farm Yard Forex]

Until you gain enough confidence to risk your money in a live account, keep practicing on a demo account. And, if you think you are ready to trade with real money, then trade a micro account. Risk less capital initially because chances of trade losses seem more likely.

I think defining ready can be hard. Personally, I treated ready as when I felt I had formed good habits that would be beneficial when going live to help me cope better with the new psychological challenges of live trading. I think too many don't treat demo trading seriously and approach it thinking it is risk free. Which it is of course but I don't think leads to mental preparedness.

 

[Farm Yard Forex]

I didn't bother with a micro account and went straight from demo to standard account. I can see your point but if a demo is taken seriously enough, for long enough, I believe the positive habits and mindset created can carry through to live trading relatively seamlessly. I think the issue a lot of time is that for some reason risk management isn't something enough new traders start to practice from the start and leave it until they are live and prone to make mistakes with real money.

 

[Flink]

You can trade a demo account for a few days to figure out how trading actually works, but after that, you should move to a live account because the real experience comes when you trade live. Just keep in mind not to use more than 2% of your capital on each trade and place take-profit and stop-loss in your trades.