Free Demo Accounts – “try before you buy”
Try trading for real without spending any money, by using our free-to-try demo accounts
When you’re first starting out trading – be it forex, options or CFDs – it’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the different ways you can trade. There are so many different markets with so many different trading opportunities available. On top of that there are so many brokers to choose from. Each of them have slightly different trading platforms and unique ways of providing their trading solutions to you. So wouldn’t it be great if you could try out trading different markets across the different platforms available without having to commit real money? Of course it would, and YOU CAN!
How Demo Accounts Work
Not all brokers offer demo accounts, unfortunately. However, there are some good ones to try (see below). These accounts function just like a real live trading account except that they use demo credits as opposed to real money. This way any trading wins or loses you accrue won’t be real. Since you aren’t trading with real money you are able to try out all the different things that you need to without worrying about potentially making an expensive mistake.
Also a demo account allows you to get a feel for a specific broker’s trading platform. Even though they all essentially do the same thing each broker provides a trading platform that is unique to them. The way they lay out their user interface and menus will be completely different from one another. So if you get a demo account across several different brokers you’ll be able to see which one you like in terms of interface and layout. We have recommended what we believe to be the best demo accounts below …… these are free-to-try using the links below.
How to Get Your Own Demo Account
Getting a demo account is really very simple and easy to do.
IQ OPTION TRADING DEMO
Without doubt, one of the best to try is this one from IQ Option. It opens up all the features of their unique trading platform in full to the general public, for free. Accessing the demo account is easy; simply register (by filling out a registration form) and then $1,000 of virtual money is immediately made available in the demo account. One of the major benefits of IQ Option is the minimum trade amount of just $1, so therefore a demo balance of $1,000 is more than sufficient for testing out strategies and getting the know the interface. It is also worth pointing out that IQ Option is fully regulated and as such is a safe place to trade.
Important note – IQ Option does not accept traders from USA, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Russia, Japan, Turkey, Israel, Syria, Sudan and Iran, so please do not attempt to open a demo account if you are based in one of these countries (please see other options below).
OPEN AN IQ OPTION FREE DEMO ACCOUNT HERE
HIGHLOW TRADING DEMO
HighLow take it one step further. Not only do they offer a demo account with $10,000 of virtual money to practice trading on their platform with and to build your skills and test your strategies, but they also offer cashback too for all new accounts. The minimum deposit for new accounts with HighLow is 50 (AU$/US$/€/£) and new accounts will receive up to 50 (AU$/US$/€/£) as ‘cashback’ with absolutely no limitations on withdrawing it once it has been redeemed. HighLow pride themselves on fairness and transparency, and are regulated by ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investment Commission), a rigourous and internationally-respected government body who ensure that HighLow meets the most stringent of criteria in order to provide Options broking services.
Important note – HighLow does not accept traders from USA, BUT … they are the best choice for traders from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan and China. Additionally, we recommend traders from elsewhere (European and Arabic countries in particular) to give the demo account a try – after all is free-to-try and therefore you have nothing to lose!
OPEN A HIGHLOW FREE DEMO ACCOUNT HERE
Conclusion
We suggest that you create several different demo accounts across a range of trading brokers. This way you can find a broker whose trading platform you like. You’re going to be spending a lot of time using this trading platform so you want to make sure you pick one that’s easy for you to understand and use. After you’ve found a trading platform that you like you can easily switch your demo account over to a real money account. Often the brokers will have prominent links displayed on the demo account page that will allow you to switch to a real money account quickly and easily.
As you can see, using a demo account is a great way to practice trading and to familiarize yourself with new and different trading platforms. Feel free to use these demo accounts for as long as you need to. There is no pressure to begin using real money, and you don’t want to start trading until you feel totally comfortable with the way your chosen trading platform works. So remember these benefits and create your first demo account today.