Forex demo trading is very important if you want to learn to trade forex effectively and efficiently. Many traders overlook the simple fact that mastering the strategy they are trying to learn on a demo account before going live can literally save them thousands of dollars.
• Why demo trading is important - You need to demo trade first in order to familiarize yourself with your brokers platform to eliminate silly trading mistakes. Also, demo trading your forex strategy is critical so that you understand how to trade it when you go live. Mastering your strategy on demo account first, by doing this you aren’t just trading randomly when you switch to live trading; it makes the transition much smoother.
• If you can’t make money on a demo account you won’t make money live. Live trading has emotion involved and demo trading does not, that is the bottom line. So, if you lose money on demo accounts you will certainly lose money when trading live, and probably a lot more. Many traders overlook this simple fact and they jump the gun due to the temptation to trade live before they have proved themselves successful on a demo account. It is critical that you learn to trade on a demo account before risking your real hard-earned money.
• How long should I demo trading for? Until you see a minimum of 2-3 months of consistent profits and feel that you have completely mastered your forex trading strategy. If you are a price action trader this means you should have mastered 1 price action trading setup and traded it consistently for 2-3 months before thinking about trading live.
• Demo trading as a tool for continued trader improvement - If after going live you find yourself losing tons of money, go back to demo trading and “work out the bugs”. Demo trading is a great way to scratch your itch to trade without having to risk real money. You should use your demo account as an on-going tool to refine and master your trading strategy. If after a losing trade or a winning trade you find yourself with an overwhelming urge to jump back in the market but you know there is no real setup, trade your demo account instead, this will serve 2 purposes; it will scratch your itch to trade and it will also teach you that you likely would have lose money due to emotion.
• What charts do I use for demo trading? - It is essential that you learn to trade forex off of charts that close at the end of trading in New York, this 5pm New York time. The reason this is important is because closing prices are very important in all financial markets and the end of New York trading marks the end of the current forex trading day and the beginning of the new one, many price action setups are formed at this time as well. Click here to open a New York close demo account.