Are you planning to start your trading journey and is looking for the best forex demo account to begin with? Let me share with you which platform helped me practice and strategize to gain success in earning profit through trading and why it is worth the try.
What is a demo account?
Opening a live account in a forex trading platform is both an exciting and fearful decision. Once you take a risk with your money, there is no going back. This is why many beginner traders spend a lot of time educating themselves through extensive research and/or trading courses and mentoring programs. However, gaining knowledge about the industry is often not enough after such research and courses. This is because success entails a lot of practice, strategizing, and learning from mistakes. Fortunately, demo trading accounts are available for beginner traders to try and learn from before they actually venture to live trading.
A demo trading account is a free trial account offered by forex brokers in trading platforms which is used to practice trading and test out the platform and trading strategies. For beginner traders, demo accounts are beneficial because they use these to practice before they venture to live trading. Meanwhile, experienced traders make use of demo accounts when trying out a new platform to test if it is suitable to their strategies. This is because every platform is different and trying out one before opening an actual account is a wise step to take to avoid regrets in the end.
Since demo accounts are not real accounts, it doesn’t use actual money as well so demo account owners don’t need to invest any amount before starting. However, demo accounts still includes all the features of a real trading account. The only advantage a real account has over a demo one is that it has access to live market data whereas a demo account only relies on simulated data.
Advantages and disadvantages of trading on a demo account and what to consider in choosing one
According to learnbonds.com, trading on a demo account entails the following advantages and disadvantages:
PROS:
-
- Demo accounts are risk-free
- Exposes a trader to real-time forex trading situations
- Helps a trader develop, test, and perfect forex strategies
- Helps a trader critically understand the broker’s features and services
- Prepares a beginner mentally and emotionally for the live trading
CONS:
-
- Can give a trader a false sense of confidence
- Does not do much to help a trader master his/her emotions
- May encourage bad trading habits
- Limited funds and duration
In choosing a good platform to open a demo account with; one must consider the trading platform; time limit; trading balances and renewability of the allocated virtual currencies; ease of opening; trading tools, features, and execution speeds; leverage and number of trading pairs; types of accounts available; and trading costs.
OANDA – the best forex demo account for beginners
When I started my trading journey, I was also hesitant to risk my money knowing that I may not have enough knowledge and experience to formally venture into live trading. The good thing is I was able to find an excellent and reliable platform which also offers a demo account. I made the most out of it and really took my time learning, strategizing, and familiarizing myself until I was already confident enough to open a real account. So far, OANDA never failed me and has even exceeded my expectations. Wherever I am now, this is because I traded first on the best demo account from the best trading platform in the market.
So, what is OANDA? OANDA is an award-winning trading platform and globally-recognized broker which provides both beginner and professional clients fast and easy access to global markets to trade more than 120 instruments, including currency pairs, precious metals, and CFDs for global markets, indices, commodities, and bonds, as available in the client’s region.
It is definitely beginner-friendly because it uses simple and intuitive functionality to place trades directly from the chart with fast, reliable, and exceptional trade execution while managing a client’s risk exposure with take profits, stop losses, and trailing stops. Meanwhile, it helps professional traders avoid missing a trading opportunity through its market events calendar and stay on top of the market movements and volatility through access to global market news feed from leading providers Dow Jones, 4CAST and OANDA MarketPulse.
Features of the OANDA fxTrade platform and demo account
OANDA’s demo account is perfect for beginners who are new to forex trading and for experienced traders who needs to test their strategies under real market conditions. With their free demo account, users can choose from any one of OANDA’s award-winning web, desktop, MT4, or mobile trading platforms. They get to have unlimited, free access to their demo forex trading account and test trading strategies under real market conditions. Options to reset or adjust starting balance or profit/loss at any time, change leverage, and use flexible trade sizes to test comfort level are also available.
In case you have already maximized your training via the demo account and wants to open a real one, OANDA fxTrade platform is still your best choice because it has the following features:
- Fast, exceptional trading execution – With OANDA, you can (1) access live, real-time prices to trade major, minor, and exotic instruments on the world’s top financial markets; (2) trade flexible lot sizes with minimal spreads and no additional commissions, minimum deposit, or minimum trade size; (3) avoid dealing desk intervention or algorithmic software designed to push trades to the broker’s favor; and (4) have access to multi-lingual 24/5 customer support during market hours.
- Mobile chart trading – This forex app allows you to (1) trade faster, easier, and more efficiently from a single view placing orders directly on the chart; (2) manage trading opportunities and your risk exposure on the go by buying, selling, and editing orders through simple taps; and (3) have access to more than 50 technical tools, including 32 overlay indicators, 11 drawing tools, and 9 charts to easily edit your take profit, stop loss, and trailing stop orders.
- Trade, monitor, and take control on the go – With OANDA, you can (1) manage positions, control risk, and monitor account profitability in one touch to react to market activity in real-time wherever you are; (2) access automated custom notifications on price alerts, order expiry, upcoming economic calendar events, and global market news from leading providers; (3) customize chart sizes tailored to your trading style to set up the number of preferred units traded, risk and profitability levels; and (4) add funds directly to your trading account from your mobile phone.
How to start trading using a demo account on OANDA?
- Sign in to your OANDA trading account. Open one here.
- Open the Order window. Click on the forex or CFD instrument you would like to trade in your Rates List or Panel.
- Make sure the correct order tab is selected. Select whether you would like to open a Market Order or Entry Order.
- Click Buy or Sell. Buy if you think the forex or CFD instrument may go up in value; sell if you think it may go down. Buy and sell rates are different because of the broker’s spread, which varies by time of day and market events.
- Verify the forex or CFD instrument. Select another currency pair, precious metal, commodity, stock index, or bond CFD from the list if you want to trade another instrument.
- Type the number of units you want to trade.
- Add a Take Profit, Stop Loss, Trailing Stop, or Bound to your trade (Optional)
- Click Submit.
Start demo trading with the best!
The OANDA platform has helped me grow and gain success all throughout my trading journey. It is not only user-friendly, and safe, but it is also almost all-in-one, offering clients various tools and features to help them succeed. Yes, it may not be perfect, but perhaps what makes it the best for me and I hope for you as well, is how it allows beginner and experienced traders to “gauge the waters” using their free demo accounts.
If you think that it is also perfect for you, then go and give it a try! Start demo trading with the best forex demo account – OANDA.
Let me know about your thoughts and questions by sharing them on the comment section below or by sending me a private message. If you need help with starting out on your trading journey, let me help you with my services so I can share with you my personal tactics that led me to success.