Technical differences between a demo account and a real one

One of the significant inventions in stock trading is the demo account; without its existence it is quite difficult to imagine modern trading.

Thanks to this opportunity, it is quite possible to learn trading, study the trading platform, test strategies and trading robots without risking real money.

According to brokers, this type of account is absolutely no different from real ones, except that you are trading with virtual money.

But there is a category of traders who argue that trading on demo accounts is harmful, since there are many differences from working on a real account.

Is this really true? And is it worth using virtual accounts for training and testing strategies?

In fact, there are not that many differences, and if they exist, they are not that critical.

For example, you also get upset if your strategy or tactics did not live up to expectations, and the deal closed at a loss.

Technical differences between a demo and a real account

Firstly, it should be noted that most brokers now offer the option of opening several types of virtual accounts:

Regarding RoboForex , there are two options: RoboForex-Demo and RoboForex-DemoPro. Surprisingly, RoboForex-DemoPro has wider spreads than RoboForex-Demo.

This option allows for individual settings for each account, which is quite convenient in some cases. It can be accessed through the navigator:

If we talk about the differences themselves, then:

• Spread size - the same as on a similar type of account, and the spread does not always play a big role. In addition, there is a commission here, if your broker has one.

• Swap size - equal to the swap on real broker accounts. This allows you to see the costs of long-term transactions in practice.

• Work of advisors - I did not notice much of a difference, except that sometimes some advisors simply refuse to run on demo accounts.

• Speed ​​of order execution - it seemed that on the demo it is faster, but perhaps this is just my personal perception. Since the difference in ping is no more than 50 milliseconds, it is clear that it is not really noticeable.

• Number of available assets - this is where disappointments sometimes occur, since on the demo there are much fewer assets available for trading than on real accounts.

Separately, I would like to say about the psychological component, I don’t know about others, but I get very upset if the strategy that I have been thinking about for a week is not confirmed in practice. The degree of risk depends less on the account you trade on and more on your personality.

cent accounts have long been available .