You need to start demo immediately to put into practice all you are reading. That is why it’s call demo. Use it to understand the market as you learn how to trade
A very sound advice! You not likely to get this from a course or system marketer who is looking for your money promising you to become a wealthy millionaire in short time - selling a dream. Sooner you start to become a disciplined, confident and self-sufficient, it will be good for you. And don’t forget to seek help or help others - as it will help you to embedding your learning to become a professional trader. Good luck my friend - with all the best you need.
This is also a good advice on demo trading. However, there is no point to do demo on a platform A and then open an account with a provider who only offers trading on a different platform B. So select wisely what type of trading you want to do and markets you are interested in your domicile country including some checks about the regulatory matters, Don’t jump from one system or other without doing your testing at least 21 days - three markets, no more than two trades and at a fixed time slot. Don’t get glued to the screen watching your trade. Instead spend time back testing the chart and journaling. DO YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR YOUR DEMO - treat it like a real account as much as you can!
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Important to focus on a limited areas - markets, methods, strategies and indicators or specific tools. You need to develop understanding and build confidence on it - with various input parameters and expected outcomes. Its like a toddler crawling, getting up to stand and climb the sofa or walk in the living room before running in the park. I think that helps to protect your dignity.
It is also important to account for your progress on the demo with someone if you can do it.
Thank you @apezzero. Your support means a lot to me. I don’t normally rise to the bait with most wannabee paid mentors, but when I see such offering absolutely nothing to forum members except “contact me privately” or “see my telegraph account”, it is like a red rag to a bull. Some may be forgiven for thinking that I am a corporate plant to weed out dissenters and nutters. I am not. I just think it worthwhile to read and contribute a lot on this forum because I know there are so many people who hear good things about Forex trading and think they will try it.
And I think that everyone in their lives should participate in something like Forex trading. But what infuriates me is to see any person marketing any topic showing the tell tale $250K cars, $5M villas and a heavily suntanned young man or woman just lapping up the good life from being a “successful investor for just an hour a day”.
About the closest I have seen anyone get to that is reading Tim Ferris’ “The Four Hour Work Week”, a thoroughly enjoyable “autobiography” of someone who knew what he wanted and made it his business to go out and get it.
After getting all the required knowledge about forex trading, you can start demo trading. This allows you to test your newly learned skills. Demo trading helps you to practice without any risk involved. Once you are successful with your demo trades, you can start trading on a live account as well.
Start demo trading early, while you’re still learning. Don’t wait to read and read and read. Get your feet wet, don’t worry if you exit the trade in a loss. Don’t worry if your account gets blown up to zero. it’s all party of the journey. Fail early!
The moment you understand how to read charts. You should take learning and trading side by side.
There is no best time to trade using a demo account because a demo account does not require real capital and no risks involved in it.
It is a tool used to practice before entering live trading, and many traders use it to develop new skills and strategies.
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1H, 4H with wide stop losses near key reversal points are the safest. You will have enough time to consider entry and exit levels in your positions.
Any time that you feel that you have decent knowledge to start practising is good enough. The sooner you start, the earlier you can apply what you learn. There is no capital investment needed for demo at all since all broker allow customers to open demo account for free.
I started demo trading once I got the clarity of forex concepts and could read charts. Initially, it’s helpful to take help from other traders in implementing trading strategies. You can start with simple concepts like support and resistance.
New traders can begin with demo trading once they have an understanding of forex concepts and understand how to read charts. Initially, it will be difficult to create strategies. So, you can take help from other traders and understand how they work.
@PeterNguyen I totally agree with your point. I feel demo accounts are the best way of learning and understanding trading without any real money. I would suggest one can start trading on a demo account and side by side keep learning about trading. And even while trading via demo account you need to be updated about the market news or any announcement made by central banks.
I completely agree with you. One can start demo trading whenever he feels like. Demo accounts are the best way to learn trading as they do not involve real money.
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i would also suggest moving to a real trading account when you feel confident. Having some form of money investment even small amount will teach you about proper money management and control your emotion during the trade (which is very important cause trading anxiety can lead to big losses).
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True, but the point I was making is this; lean first before you start or do it simultaneously. I mean what knowledge will you demo trade with?
Demo is a form of live trading, its cool to learn the mechanics of placing trades. Other than that its just a slow way to backtest. I would do 90 to 95% backtesting and 5 to 10% demo or live trading, just to spark more ideas and highlight system nuances. Backtesting is the skill you must master, its required to be able to trade live in the future. Just because its required doesnt mean people do it properly, if at all.
The moment you learn the basics you should start trading on demo and then practise as you trade. Theory alone is not enough to learn how to trade, nor is trading without knowing the theory.
No time frame really, so long you have been learning, it’s good you put that knowledge into practice. And demo trade is the best way to do that, I remember in my case I took full advantage of the unlimited demo account of forexchief from day one, that really proved helpful. And it is also very wise to occasionally go back to demo to test out your strategies before applying them to live trades.