I’m using a demo account for PaxForex and TradersWay (brokers). Traders way has thiner spreads on the demo, and both filled fast at market orders. I’m not sure if PaxForex is the ECN demo that I want. Is this realistic filling? What should I be aware of with broker provided live demo accounts?
Also on Metatrader: how do I quickly enter an order? Is there a DOM or fast single click order entry somewhere? The “New Position” window seems very slow in a fast moving market.
In my personal experience broker acts differently on live account than the demo one.I started the demo account with my broker and everything went great and i was welcome to open a live account with them with “warm” wishes but things were changed when i opened a live account.Order execution was great at the start but with the passage of time it became slower and slower.Slippage was much higher than i could ever imagine.I talked to my broker several times and he told me that they have different servers for demo and live accounts and there is a lot of liquidity during the times of news so he cannot trigger my order exactly at my mentioned price.I really don’t know about paxforex but i think that most of the brokers would tell u the same story.
You may place pending order in a fast moving market to jump in the adventure quickly.
Pepperstone Edge Razor MT4 now has DOM support (single click to buy/sell), you could try that out.
( I also recommend them as a broker generally )
W.r.t to your first question (what to expect in live -vs- demo): depending on your broker, orders may not be filled as quickly, and there may also be slippages and higher spreads.
IMHO, the best way to go about it is bite the bullet, open a [B]tiny[/B] live a/c and work with that to see it suits you. Then afterwards you could top up.
I agree with dudest. Open a micro account and fund it with the minimum and start to trade micro lots. Stick with your broker (I am with PaxForex as well) for a while and you will see how your live account behaves (speed of order execution, slippage, etc.). In general I would never judge a broker based on their demo accounts.
I think the most different thing between demo and live account is the SPEED of command execution. As one member said, since the demo account often has only 1 server so the speed wasn’t good as live account with a lot of server.
And in Fx, your command must be executed on right time, if not, you get lost.
I’m decretionary trading in MT4, and I cannot find any place to close orders quickly or at once. I’m forced to right click, press close then click three or six more times through those windows.
Any thoughts on how to make the process quicker?
No “flatten everything” buttons like Ninja Trader?
of course you need to register to download the tool. After downloading, for convenience leave a copy on your PC desktop so that you can turn it on anytime you need it…
Now turn it on and test it on demo by placing a lot of orders on MT4 , then try to turn on the script and see how different CloseAll.ex4 is when using the MT4 ticker…
A demo for MT4 or any ECN for that matter will never be as realistic as the real thing. Demo systems are allowed run with instant execution and no chance of rejections or fill delays as the liquidity is pumped in with zero intervention.
Within a live environment a number of factors come into play. For most brokers, including those on MT4, their liquidity comes from the big banks. So although some brokers may operate under No Dealing Desk models, these banks will not accept fills if there is a slight delay through their MT4 bridge or just a delay in general. Most will work under what is called “last look” whereby they have 50ms or so to reject a trade in the event that they are off market. These are not always employed but they do result in Live environments not being as realistic as demo environments.