How to use a demo account properly before trading real money

Make it realistic

Set the demo balance to roughly the amount you would really fund, not a million dollars. Size trades with the lot size calculator at the same risk percentage you would accept with real money. If the demo teaches you to trade ten times your real size, it teaches the wrong habit.

A four-week plan

1. Week 1: learn the platform. Place and close orders, set stops and targets, and read the margin and equity figures. No strategy yet.
2. Week 2: write a one-page plan: what you trade, when, risk per trade and your stop and target rules. Trade only that plan and fill in a pre-trade checklist each time.
3. Week 3: log every trade in the trading journal, including mistakes and how you felt.
4. Week 4: review. How many trades broke your own rules? What did costs take? Fix one habit at a time.

What a demo cannot teach you

• Emotion: losing real money feels different, and that is when discipline breaks.
• Execution: demo fills can be better than live fills, with less slippage and tighter spreads at volatile moments.
• A small sample: a few weeks of results prove little, so do not treat a good demo month as proof of an edge.

When you are ready, and when not to move on

Move to real money only if you followed your plan, kept the journal and can explain your losses. If you broke your rules often on demo, you will do so with real money too. Verify your provider first with the broker checklist and start with an amount you can afford to lose entirely.

Educational content, not investment advice. Trading CFDs is high risk and you can lose all of your capital.

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Limits and risk

This tool is educational. Results are estimates from the numbers you enter and are not investment advice. Trading CFDs is high risk and you can lose everything. Read the full risk warning