What are the differences between Demo + Live Accounts

Hi Traders. I have been messing around with various demo accounts on and off for nearly 2 years now and I now feel ready to start trading for real. I have tried to treat my demos as real money but I know it is not the same as when I will be dealing with my own money. I have read that trading is slower on a live account so when you enter or exit a trade your order may not be instantaneous. So depending on how volatile the market is the price may change before your order is filled, is this true? and if so does it have a significant effect on traders?(I plan on day trading). My worry is that the broker may delay my order to see which way the market moves and make this work to his advantage. Does this happen or am I just being paranoid? Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Depends on your broker, on your internet connection speed and the platform that you are using in relation to your broker.

a slip of a few pips here and there happens occasionally.

I am not a friend of demo trading. A demo acc. is nice to get a grip how the platform works. How you enter orders etc. Not for check a system. One can check a system with backtesting, which is much faster.

Live trading is a completely different world. Not just because of the real money. Big big big difference with any broker I know is order execution. It has nothing to do with being paranoid, but brokers are no charity organizations and they try as well as you to make money and the more they make, the better they feel; the less they make, the worse they feel - just the same as Joe Trader. It doesn’t mean they are all bucket shops and build obstacles for you intentionally, but they all have expenses and the better the order execution is, the higher the expenses of the broker. So don’t expect miracles and the same efficiency in order execution with a live account what you had with a demo. That’s why a slightly profitable strat may become a loser. You need a better edge than just a little above the spread to beat the market in a live account. Be prepared for slippings, delayed order execution, etc. There is nothing wrong with it in general. The only thing what is wrong, that no broker points to those facts. They all do more or less point to the advantages of fx trading, but not tell you the tricky things. So, do hour homework! Add 10% losses to your demo results and that should be a good preparation for what you will get in the real shark basin. :wink:

They won’t wait to see which way the market moves, but you may have ‘hidden spread.’ For example if you place a buy order at market price when it is 1.33625, the order may ‘wait’ a couple of seconds until the price gets to 1.33635/1.33645 before filling.
Equally on a limit order if you place a buy offer at 33625, your order may not be filled until the offers reach 1.33605/1.33615. All depends on your broker. This can happen on a round trip, so you can be sneaked off 3-4 pips per round trip on top of spread with live.

Thanks Buckscoder These are the type of answers that I am looking for. I suppose we have to ask the right questions. A 10% reduction sounds realistic and to be honest I was expecting that. I have done a lot of research into brokers and I think I have found one that suits me but this -10% is needed to be added to the equation before any final decision is made. Thanks again for your help and the best of luck in your trades