I am currently studying in Babypips PreSchool & was wondering as to when I should start demo trading?
Would it be a good idea to start demo trading now or later on as I progress within the school?
Any comments would be appreciated.
Kemal
I started demo trading before I started Babypips school and I lost my entire account after 3 weeks. I started the school, learning the basics and opened another demo account and have been trading for another 3 weeks so far. I am actually making a profit for a change (up 2.5% overall so far). A demo account is a great way to learn by making mistakes and learning from them but you also discover your trading style and are able to try things out. See what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes things don’t work because you haven’t understood the principles totally from the school. Keep learning and keep demo trading. I’ve also been keeping a journal of my trades which I review and hopefully learn from. Keep trading and keep learning. This isn’t a short ride. My intention is to make a profit every day. If I can do that successfully for 1-2 months without a loss than I intend to take this up full time and open a live account but not before.
Hope this helps
Tony
You may start your demo trading along with the school. Make a loss in every single virtual trade, even blow up your forex practice account, your losses will be imaginary, while the great lessons learnt are real.Your lack of experience and knowledge about terms like stop-loss orders, pips, leverage, Risk, RR ratio and similar confusing trading jargons will lead you to blowing up of your accounts. You will be learning all those terms on your journey in the school and will be applying your knowledge automatically in your demo trading platform reducing the frequency of blowing accounts.No matter how well disciplined you become with your demo trading, there is no attachment to the money in the account because you didn’t have to earn it. Pulling the trigger with real money at stake is quite different. So you may practice your demo trade as if the virtual money is your own money to make a feelings of emotions attached to real money trading.
While demo trading, you should give importance for the following
- Learn how to trade without any risk
You can use a forex trading demo account to learn how to trade without risking any of your money. This will allow you to make your worst mistakes with play money rather than your hard earned money.
- Learn on a platform you are willing to go live.
Forex demos can be used to learn a new trading platform when switching from one broker to another. You might think that all brokers allow you to buy and sell in the same way. While that is generally true, there are usually some little items that are different from broker to broker and require some getting used to. So you should practice your skills on a demo platform offered by the same broker where you are planning to live.
- Test a new trading system
Sometimes trading systems seem foolproof on paper, but once you actually turn, they loose on the market, they fail with style. Using a demo account is the best way to test any new trading ideas or systems that you have in mind, no matter how sure you might feel that it will work.
- Learn Proper Risk Management
Risk management is tough. It’s easy to give a blanket rule of thumb and say something like, no more than 2 percent risk on any one trade, but that will not work for everyone. In my opinion, 2 percent risk per trade is excessive. You might be a trader that likes to have a few trades open at a time, 5 trades that go sour and you are down 10 percent. A forex trading demo is a great place to learn about risk and trading sizing and see how market fluctuations affect your trading patterns or methods. Sometimes, even experienced traders need to make adjustment to their trading methods and styles and a forex demo is a perfect way to do that.
Don’t be more confused. You will be be attached to all these and more terms on your journey through the school. Let your school and demo trade go shoulder to shoulder.
Best wishes and happy pipping.
This is so helpfui thank you Tony Pips and Bijoymj.
I have already downloaded the MT4 platform and signed up for a demo accoutn with GFT. I just need to make that first leap & start demo trading/gaining experience.
KH
According to me, it will be a good idea to start demo trading after completing study at Babypips School. Complete knowledge is very essential in forex trading.
Hey there,
I started trading way before I was introduced to babypips. I have had countless demo accounts. I am probably on my 7th demo. Before trading with Babypips, it was more gambling to me. Honestly, I blew my account quite quickly.
However, after going through Babypips’ school and trading with the blog posts, I have doubled two accounts so far. I have kept trading journals and learned quickly what my emotions will do to an account (nothing good…).
The point is, get into trading that demo account right away. Open it, submerge yourself in the atmosphere! Honestly, it will motivate you to learn more and more. It will push you through babypips’ school and you will be more and more inclined to find information on Forex.
Now, don’t let it go over your head. Because you may feel overwhelmed, but when Babypips’ Big Pippins posts a set up, and you’re like, “Oh! Yeah, I saw that chart pattern!” – you will feel ecstatic that you’ve come so far in trading.
Trading is not easy. You will probably lose every bit of margin in your demo account and probably your live account… but when you start becoming profitable, you will be stunned as to why you didn’t start sooner!
Cole
Thx for the comments guys however I’m in two minds as i do want start demo trading however I’m also thinking of completing babypips school & then test my knowledge with demo trading.
I am going to think about it hard & then decide.