How much studying should I do before practising on a demo account?

My big question is, how much studying should I do before practising for 6 months on a demo account?

I’ve just completed the school of pipsology and I have demo traded for 2-3 months before even reading the school of pipsology so I’ve got a little bit of experience when it comes to practical trading, but I was wondering if there is ever a point when you can do too much reading about something when in actual fact doing practical work would be more beneficial.

I have a young son so it would be ideal for me to carry on studying until he goes to school, then I can really get my head down but what I’m trying to work out is whether I should start demo trading straight away.

I know doctors study for years and years before actually practising, but then again some people learn better through experience on the job so it will be interesting to see what sort of answers crop up.

This is what I’ll be for the next few years of my life so please give me the best answers you possibly can, I’m particularly interested in hearing from people that are already more experienced and/or successful traders.

Thanks for reading!

P.S If you think you know anywhere better to post this question, please let me know! I’m looking to get as many opinions as possible as this is important to me.

The issue I have with demo accounts is you will do things that you wouldn’t do on a real account. They are nice to get used to a brokers platform or fine tuning entries and exits or whatever but your real learning starts when you have skin in the game. Even just penny trading with real money will help you be more disciplined.

Also, as a trader you will never stop learning. People that have been doing this for 20 still say that they learn new things. Same with doctors they have to keep up with the times.

So in my opinion you should get in and start doing. This is not a university course with a beginning and an end you learn as you go.

Good luck.

This varies hugely from country to country, and even sometimes from medical school to medical school. There are some places where they’re involved in patient interaction (albeit part-time) almost from day one. In other places, they learn about anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, therapeutics, pathology and so on for as long as two years before they’re allowed to see a patient at all.

I’m curious …

How is it that you already know that 6 months is the right duration for demo-account practice but not how much pre-demo theory-learning should precede it?

In a way, I’m cheeky posting at all, because I don’t know the answer; sorry. :8:

My contention is that one would have to know a lot about you, your educational background, and “how you learn”, to try a reasonable answer to this question.

However, I think it’s a good question to be asking yourself. I also think that some theory-learning before practicing at all on a demo account is a really good idea. I also think that when people start practicing with a demo account, the ones who benefit most from that experience tend overall to be the ones who’ve done most pre-demo theory-learning. I also suspect that, quite often, the difference between someone who’s had 6 months’ experience of demo-practice and someone who’s had 1 month’s experience of it repeated six times over is that the first person did plenty of theory-learning before practicing on demo at all. But I’ve discussed this often enough to know that not many people are going to agree with me about that.

Personally, I suspect that, for some people, the problem is the opposite: that they severely limit their value of their demo-exerience by not having understood much theory before they start.

Again, what I’ve said is very much “just my perspective”. (I did a lot of theory-learning before demo-practice, and I did demo-practice together with more theory-learning for nearly 4 years before trading with real money, so my situation and experience are clearly very atypical, but I hope you don’t mind my posting, anyway.)

I’ve taken you literally, as you see, by offering what will doubtless be an idiosyncratic one!

But seriously, people learn differently, and benefit differently from different ways of learning; and without knowing anything about you, it’s [I][U]really[/U][/I] difficult to answer your question helpfully. Sorry! :8:

Hi

Thanks for your response.

Sorry about that! That was an assumption, I know nothing of universities or how they work. I am actually rather uneducated academically. Although I’d like to think I can educate myself otherwise :smiley:

Hahaha in the school of pipsology it says you should demo practice for at least 6 months… It never told me how much pre-demo theory-learning to do. Although I’m pretty sure that like you said, it is subjective to each individual.

“I also suspect that, quite often, the difference between someone who’s had 6 months’ experience of demo-practice and someone who’s had 1 month’s experience of it repeated six times over is that the first person did plenty of theory-learning before practicing on demo at all. But I’ve discussed this often enough to know that not many people are going to agree with me about that.”

I’ve also read somewhere that if you practice the wrong thing you can end up in a viscous circle. I presume you could practice the wrong thing for however much time and get no better at doing something, in fact, if you Youtube “BBC Millions in Minutes” on the second episode you will see a good example of this. So I completely understand what you’re trying to say… Correct me if I’m wrong.

But yeah, thank you very much for your response. The more opinions the better and it was nice for you to tell me your own personal experience when it came to learning as well.

Well, you can start your demo from zero level! But, it would be better if you start with clear knowledge on Mt4 trading platform! In addition, don’t set any specific session for your learning, it’s a natural process actually! You need to practice your demo until you are not sure about your trading skill, happy learning!

In my opinion practising on a [B]demo[/B] account should happen concurrently with the studying and it should begin as soon as you learn the functions of the actual software you use. Learning forex in theory and seeing what it looks like in practise can be two very different things, so it’s best for there not to be a big delay between the two. Mind you, you should still study the theory extensively while testing what you’ve learned on the demo account.

Hi Tina,

A demo account lets you place practice trades without risking real money. While there are many reasons to wait before trading live, I see no reason to delay demo trading. It will give you hands on experience implementing the trading techniques you study.

I’ve traded live for over 20 years (first with stocks, then futures, and now forex) and I still continue to use demo accounts to test new strategies. I won’t trade a strategy with real money until I am confident with the results I see on demo, and keep in mind this can take longer than 6 months.

In my experience, the correlation between your demo performance and your live performance will depend on three factors which I discuss in this earlier post on how to make the most of your demo trading.

I would say until your reach decent profitability with enough sample size.

You can start practicing on demo account anytime. Anyway, practice is always needed!
And when you’l feel that you know enough to trade real money, open micro account and practice further. I think trading real money (even not very big sum) is much better than demo, cause trader learns to get along with his emotions here.

I agree with grantx that trader is always lerning. So you’ll have not only to trade in future,but also to learn. Always. Remember this.

At least 3 months, then start demo trading. You will learn practical experience in a demo account for what you had studied earlier. Several things will come to your knowledge when you apply your knowledge in a demo account.

I think first 1 or 2 month for studying and then keep studying with demo account. Learning with demo account is more advisable, for any newbie.

You should get the knowledge from some forex forum, you will have to choose any forex forum and can get the awareness about forex, you should also download the book available on the internet.

Traders make a profit on a demo account for many reasons, including psychological reasons. When traders try demo trading, they get virtual money and hence have no fear of trading with that money. Also, they have no tension or pain for losing money and trade using high lot sizes, without any real understanding. Additionally, their profit increases substantially, boosting their ego and self-confidence trading the high lot sizes.

This might be an old thread, but the highlighted line above really is key. Some trading systems while being tested in a demo environment can take a very long time to achieve positive expectancy. I’ve worked on new ideas and trading methods which have been in demo accounts for up to a year prior to letting loose with real money.

As Jason said “can take longer than 6 months” - imagine this being attempted by a trader with less than a few years experience.

You have to study enough to convince yourself first that you now understand the rudiments of forex and that you have acquired the needed knowledge to trade with minimized risks. And the use a demo account will help you achieve that.

You have spoken very well and I agree with you. There IS NO PREFFERED way for a trader to put his knowledge to the test other than practicalizing with a demo account.

I agree. Proper study and practice when it comes to Forex trading takes time. Testing strategies takes time. One has to accept that thought and not rush through the process or they’d end up on the losing side for an even longer time.