A challenge to those who say Demos suck.

People are down on demo accounts. They say it doesn't mean shit until you have real money on the line due to psychological factors. I think demos are a great learning tool. I've learned more from practicing strategies with my Oanda demo than anything else.

Lets say you were going on a gambling cruise with your buddies to play poker for money. Is it a good idea to practice playing poker with phony chips for six months prior? Of course.

How about fighter pilots practicing on flight simulators? Does practicing on a simulator not improve your skills because you don't die when you get shot down?

I have a couple of friends who play Magic The Gathering. They have tournaments for it and there's prize money for the winners. Who here thinks the best guys at the tournament only played for $$$ to get to where they are because otherwise practice wouldn't mean anything without the pressure of money being on the line?

How about the pro ballplayer who takes batting practice before the game? Should he instead not bother to practice because there's no pressure to drive a double into the gap like in a real game?

There's no doubt there's a big difference between demo and live. And yes, you have to be able to do it when it counts or it doesn't mean jack shit.

Look at the greatest pro football quarterback in NFL history, Joe Montana. This guy has 4 Super Bowl rings. He's also won Super Bowl MVP 3 times! The only man in history to do that. That my friends, is what you call clutch. And that's why he's the best of all time. Because he played great when it was all on the line

I'm guessing Joe Montana would never have made it there unless he threw a shit ton of practice thows, though.

I think demos have there place in learning to trade, but once you are comfortable with the aspect of trading I think its best to open a real money account even to trade just a 1 unit lot size like Oanda allows.



As regards to your example on poker. Playing with phony chips is nothing but a complete joke and waste of time. Once again if you know nothing about the game your playing then fine. Once you get passed the basics, you cant find a decent serious game with phony chips, because they are phony. I know this all from first hand experience as I made a living from poker for 4 years.

I think its one of those things, to each his own. Demo, micro account, whatever gets you to the next level. I still use demo account to try things, even though I trade live, but I didnt take the real next step in my trading till I opened a micro.

Best
Mike

Point taken.

i think demos are great for learning the mechanics of trading so you are fluid on the platform and dont make stupid mistakes with real money. but as practice for the actual money making part of trading, i dont see much use in them. i advocate trading with a tiny amount of money rather than demo trading. but this is an old argument that we have had a few times already, everyone has a different view on the subject it seems.

i still say trading with 1 cent/pip on a LIVE account is more useful than trading $50,000 demo account.

In my opinion, like merlin said, use demo ONLY to get familiar with the trading platform and forex basics. For everything else...there's live account..

I agree also that demo accounts won't give you the COMPLETE feeling or experience of trading...It might be good to know the platform, to get familiar with the charts or to test strategies, but for sure it will be different than live accounts...In real life, demo accounts differ from live accounts...For example you don't experience slippage in demo accounts, when you go live you will know that slippage is a real fact of life...This is just an example of realities that won't exist in demo accounts...

Talking about simulators, you don't be an expert driving cars if you spent your life practicing using simulators, unless you drive a real car down the street & make real accidents & involve in real driving, you will never be an expert, or else Airliners won't pay huge salaries for pilots with large number of REAL flight hours...They pay for REAL flight hours, not for simulated flight hours...


Thanks,

Nader

2 pips here:

Demos are good for seeing what actually happens when that moving average cross or RSI zone that you '$ee' on the charts and throw it into an EA to see how poorly it really performs in real time. If your that rare % of folks that trade for a living and you have a theory that you want to work with, there's your tool. As far as newbs go, it's a great way to learn the platform that you will be trading from. Just look at all of the posts here with the question 'How do I get the EA to trade and what folder does it go in again?' Enough said about that one. A penny a pip is a good idea to get your feet wet real time. The real sphincter tightening psych stuff hits when you're at $10, $20, $30 a pip....

A few points here:

1)Demos are great for learning, no doubt. It gives a nice basis to trade by learning how the market works, to try out different systems, and finding a method that works for you. However, the psychological aspect of trading is 80% of the game, if not more. You can find the simplest of systems out there, the simplest moving average crossover system, but if someone does not have the psychological wherewithal to deal with losses, risk, the whole deal, then they can turn a profitable system "which worked so well on the demos" (if I hear that one more time....)into really craptabulous results. That is why once someone has learned something, anything, the real lessons learned come from real trading with real money.

2)That poker analogy...err.....wrong. Basically what the other guy said.


3)It is common knowledge that that best quarterback the NFL has ever seen is JP Losman of the BUFFALO BILLS BABY!!!!!

THE HUN.

There's one thing for sure, if one can't make money on a demo account he doesn't have a snowballs chance in hell to make money with a real account. I wish they had demo accounts years ago when I was learning how to trade stocks.

Oh, BTW, I'm going to pretend I didn't even see this statement:

3)It is common knowledge that that best quarterback the NFL has ever seen is JP Losman of the BUFFALO BILLS BABY!!!!!

Maybe not even my place to spend my pips, as all can see I’m fairly new

Demo’s is great to get to know FX, platform and test strategies, but that’s it.

The emotional side is what matters and now mater how hard I tried to keep my Demo real, nothing could have prepared me for when I opened my life account and in three weeks almost had a 200% growth, 6 months later I’m sitting with 25% of my startup capital

As I was told by someone else on FF. A successful system
Emotion + money management + strategy = Succes

Now #1 can only be learned wit real money, #2 is your own baby(I think) and #3 is demo

Go SEAHAWKS.

grin.


Demos? Cool for learning your broker's tradestation, tweaking/testing EAs, and learrning a new strategy. . . then back to the micro account for some of that asymetrical MM that is so nice about trading 87 micro lots instead of 8 minis (example only).

Demos are good for learning.

But if you go looking for investors with a demo statement, it doesnt mean shit.

Learning to make money and making money are 2 different things.

You can get knowledge with a demo account, and learn the way to trade, but you can't be successful on one.

Same really applies to an account below 10k also. Doesn't mean much if you make 100% a month on 1k or 100$.. Because on 10k, you are most likely to wipe out.

The only way to know if a demo has been a good learning tool for you is to go Live, after you go Live you will have your answer, if you haven't gone Live it's like playing a scrimmage footballl game with your buddies compared to being in a Monday Night Football game. The scrimmage game certainly has value as does a demo but it is an entirely different beast because you are a different beast when you go Live. When you go Live then comes the real practice and with enough practice on a Live account it can mimic your relaxed attitude that you had on a demo. cheers

Shees... Everybody know that Peyton Manning is the best, now he only needs to win a SuperBowl to cement the fact!

Yes, Demos do suck, BIG DIFFERENCE!, when You click on that Buy or Sell with REAL money, ME INNARDS GO TOPSY TURVY AND I MOST ALWAYS HAVE A BOWEL MOVEMENT, it never fails!!!

Ps. my vote goes with Joe Montana....Number one!!

I really think the true value of demo accounts is allowing you to screw up the mechanics of using a platform when you first get going. The first time I tried Meta Trader 4 I lost $2600 in about 90 seconds. Just hit a few wrong keys and I was headed south at a high rate of speed. Had they been real dollars, not demo dollars I'd still be in shock. Even with play money it took me a while to get back up on that horse.


Let's face it, we all make stupid errors when starting out. Demo is the right place to make them.

Dick

I went to a bookstore and asked the sales woman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o></o>

I think the best thing to do to take advantage of a demo account is to find a system you like. People that do not have a system that they are set upon should not use live accounts. Find a good system with a demo, trade it for a bit demo then go live with .10c/pip and build from there.

Demos are good, though not if you are trading the same system for months and months with it. Find a good system with demo, trade live.

Your absolutely right you should definitely use a demo to learn the workings of the platform (a little common sense) but how long does that take? emm I dunno a day or two. And if you want test or system on it for while but demos don't always factor in real mkt conditions. So that why it is best to open a micro mini account and set your pips value to .01 or .10cents.

And if you find your self having to ask your self, can I afford to risk .01 to .10cents per pips to test out my system you should reconsider about trading in the first place.

Absolutely...


Why demo... You can use 1 unit to get familiar with the platform on a live account in a real environment...

Absolutely and most of us do not use simulators to get the driving license...