Live Accounts Vs Demo Account

[Moneyo]

How different are live accounts  in comparison to demo accounts in terms of slippages and bid ask spreads?Are there any hidden costs that one does not realise while trading demo accounts?

[mren89]

Hi

As far as I know they react and mimic the real market and charges you would incur eg overnight charges etc

What demo doesn't do though which in my experience is more important is you don't get any of the real emotion, you need to experience the real feel of trading even if its £1pp to start off with. You could practice for a long time on demo and get a great strategy in place (which is great to do) but as soon as you go real and see that swing negative in your account your strategy goes out the window. So if you can start going real you will become a better trader much quicker. Hope this helps.

Matt

[Guest CANAM]

Can anyone who has used the demo tell me f the live account suffers the same latency and bugs? I am considering moving my account to IG and have been working on the demo side to familiarize myself with the platform.

It seems to hold margins for hours if not days on end. The platform also seems to struggle with displaying ones positions in real time? Is the live platform more reliable ?

[616mushroomcloud]

Simply use demo to gain reassurance of a strategy, how to use a platform and gain reassurance of market behavior.

Sure some doubt may creep in to your mind but following a trading plan and being consistent isn't that difficult once you have seen your strategy play out. Doubt creeps in to my mind when I'm buying a pasty.

I've personally never had issues with account balance or margin.

[Guest Richiep]

Hi there 

I see in one of the other comments above you mention when going real and seeing that swing negative in your account your strategy goes out the window. What is a swing negative?

 

[mren89]

8 hours ago, Guest Richiep said:

Hi there 

I see in one of the other comments above you mention when going real and seeing that swing negative in your account your strategy goes out the window. What is a swing negative?

 

Hi 

I should have explained it a little better, I was meaning when your account goes into a negative position and its your real hard earned money your emotions and behaviour are different compared to demo when you have no attachment to the money. This means the decisions you make in demo might be totally different to real account given the exact same situation due to the emotional response to the real money.

Hope this helps!

Matt