First of all, this is my first post, so hello to all!
I’m just beginning to do my research into Forex trading and am currently looking for a couple of brokers to open up a demo account with. I’m in the UK, so I thought I’d look at a couple of UK brokers. The first one I’ve been looking at is ETX Capital. They only offer 14-day demo accounts. Everything I’ve read in the BabyPips guide and elsewhere suggests at least a couple of months of demo trading as a bare minimum. Why would their demo accounts be time limited to such a short period? Is it because they’re not really the kind of broker who are interested in newbie traders? Am I missing something? 14 days seems like possibly enough time to get a feel for their platform, but does nothing for someone wanting to actually practice trading.
Welcome. There are a few options you have. If you like the current demo account which expires in two weeks, you can always create a new demo account and measure your performance on a day to day basis (2 week to 2 week). If however you need unlimited demo accounts then try fxcm and i m sure there are others out there with unlimited time demo accounts.
When it comes to demo some people demo years some not at all. In order to test the platform you only needs a few moments an hour at best. You practice how to trade in a small live account so can actually practice how to trade.
Demo account will last for a limited period, and each broker has a specific timing for a demo account, but 14 days is not enough for a new trader, In my case I had started trading with ROYAL. first i started by creating a Demo account and then a live account, The Royal demo account last for 30 days and they assist you with everything you need to know.
That’s actually very unusual, these days. The great majority of places allow time-unlimited demo accounts.
It was one of those self-reinforcing things: once a handful of the biggest and most well-known brokers did this, nearly all the rest effectively had to follow suit, of course, otherwise they’d have been disadvantaged by comparison and unable to attract customers so easily.
I’m surprised to hear that there are still some time-limitations around, on demos, now. I’ve never actually seen or encountered one, myself.
I’m very surprised.
(I must say, ETX would be very low indeed on the list of places I’d look at, myself).
I’d suggest that you try Oanda UK, for a retail forex broker, and certainly Capital Spreads rather than ETX (if you want to use spreadbetting to make your profits tax-free). I have 5 or 6 separate, permanent demo accounts at Oanda, but all listed under one main, permanent demo account, which I sometimes use to test out various different methods I’m researching, just for the convenience of keeping their testing results completely separate.
Edited to add: in the long run, somewhere like Interactive Brokers may be better, because they’re [I][U]genuinely[/U][/I] brokers (i.e. they [B]don’t[/B] hold the other side of your positions and effectively “trade against you” while also holding your money and making up and interpreting the rules!). Their minimum deposit requirement is higher, though.
That’s another one I’d stay well away from, myself, given their own current financial difficulties, loan arrangements, and history of regulatory encounters and fines. Just my perspective.
If you’ll excuse a very different opinion being voiced, I think it turns out to matter a great deal, in practice, to many people. It certainly did, to me.
Quite apart from the fact that subsidiary matters such as advice and customer service can be usefully indicative of the business with which one’s dealing, an additional part of the purpose of using a demo is to familiarise oneself with the trading interface and software, its flexibility, capabilities and especially its reliability, so that when one has refined one’s method and techniques enough to feel reasonably confident of trading them with real money, one [B]doesn’t[/B] also have to get used to relying on and operating a new interface at the same time. For many people, these can be highly significant issues: there are certainly enough tales of easily avoidable woe, in this and in other forums, from people who hadn’t quite taken these factors into account in making the transition.
Before computers were popular, we used the term paper trading, or dry trading. So you test your trading system by assuming you bought this stock or that stock and follow up daily on paper. Today, the world has changed. Demo accounts have made things so much easier, Even when i have a live account and trade daily, there are times i want to test something. with all respect to back testing (which is okay) i prefer forward testing, and to do that, i use demo accounts.
Ive used a number of different brokers for demo and live accounts, and tried mt4 and ctrader platforms which seem to be offered by just about everyone.
Apart from minor differences in the indicators offered (some demo’s only offer the most popular) I can’t honestly say I noticed any difference, but maybe thats just me.
Likewise, I found them all very helpful, but then again they are hoping that I will open a live account with them, so they would be daft not to be helpful. On this point, I have found Jason of fxcm to be the most responsive of the lot, both on here and in replying to emails.
Dont know what you think, but I would avoid brokers using ‘free’ bonuses as incentives to sign up, a good broker shouldn’t need to do this and there is always a price to pay later on.
i trade with demo account about 3 months. i like join in demo contest after that i deposit small money with forex bonus. i will have more feeling with real money. we can learn faster with it
It means they want you to open live account ASAP. I don’t consider such gestures within marketing etiquette, forcing clients to compete in line with professionals without enough background trading experience. You’d better to try some offshore brokers, try to get free of that thrilling stories about offshore scams, competition is very high and chances to run up against such scam is lower and lower. Personally I do trade with offshore Hotforex though there are plenty FCA Uk regulated options. I believe their services is not better even on jot
Since we are a publicly-traded company (NYSE ticker: FXCM) the details of our finances including the loan from Leucadia are well known. In fact, in our most recent quarterly earnings presentation, we clearly outlined how we plan to repay this debt.
Over the past few years, FXCM has spent over $250 million dollars making strategic acquisitions building up our non-core businesses, mainly the institutional side as we tried to diversify the firm. We are now looking to sell some of these non-core assets; But, we are not in a rush and are looking to get the highest valuations for these assets. We are considering closing or selling smaller regulated entities that require large sums of capital requirements, but that offer increasingly low return on capital.
We recently announced the sale of FXCM Hong Kong for $36 million. This follows the sale of FXCM Japan for $62 million in April. FXCM is pleased with how our debt reduction plan is proceeding. With all the increased attention to our other properties, we are expecting robust and competitive auctions for the other non-core assets we have targeted to sell. We have repaid $81.6 million of the Leucadia loan as of today with $228.4 million principal remaining. We believe that in the near term we can pay down a majority of the loan, and that’s our goal.
Despite the events of January 15, 2015, FXCM remains in a strong competitive position. As of the latest publicly available data, we have over $200 million of excess regulatory capital worldwide and over $300 million in operating cash. By contrast, most other forex brokers are privately-held companies, so it’s hard to know how much debt they have on their books or the state of their finances.
Hi dbriley
There is a Broker that offers an unlimited time demo. There name is Etoro. I have posted a link below:- etoro.tw/1HjVO3w
There is no real reason why brokers should offer you limited time to practice on a demo. The only reason I can think of is for profit! And no you are not missing anything if you don’t fell comfortable with a broker then you should not go with them no matter your level of experience. I have been trading for three years and a lot of brokers are very very pushy.
A bit about Etoro, Etoro add an extra service to there brokerage firm. This being that it also operates a social media side. Allowing it to be a place for people to come and discuss ideas and look at how other people are trading. Which is very beneficial for beginners as they can gain ideas from more experienced traders. I myself am apart of this community and if you ever want to take a look at what i’m doing or ask a question please fell free to come to my page my username is BurleyBakers.
If you need anything else fell free to contact me.
one thing you could do is take up their demo account even though its just 14 days and use another demo from another broker, like for comparison, if you ask me a 14 day demo account is really not enough and its leans to making the trader go live just for the heck of it, but pls do not rush, stick to demo for a couple of months, i think hotforex offers a longer demo, u might try them too just to practice your strategy etc, and best of luck
only joking.