Free demo trading account: what it is and how to use it

What a demo trading account is

A demo account works like a real one, with a single difference: the money is virtual. The prices, however, are real market prices, so when you buy or sell you see exactly what would have happened with real money. You can open positions, set a stop, close them in profit or at a loss, and watch the balance change.

What it is really for

1. Learning the platform without getting an order wrong with real money.
2. Testing a method over dozens of trades and seeing if it holds up.
3. Getting used to the stop and to a small loss decided in advance.
4. Understanding how much time and attention trading asks of you.

The limit almost nobody mentions

With pretend money, fear and greed weigh less. On a demo you hold a stop calmly, let a gain run without anxiety and accept a loss without anger. With real money the same choices become much harder. That is why demo results are almost always better than the ones that come later.

How to use it well

There is only one rule: treat it as if it were real. Set the virtual capital to the amount you would really use, not a hundred thousand euros. Risk the same percentage per trade you would risk with real money, always set the stop and write every trade in a journal. After a few weeks you will have your own numbers to think about.

If you are starting from scratch, first read the guide to mindful online trading. To understand when the demo has done its job, there is the guide on moving from a demo account to a real account

The STA DEMO account

The STA DEMO account is free forever. It uses virtual capital and real prices, and it receives the same trading cards as people using STA with real money, with entry, stop and target already set by the agents. It is a way to practise with a method rather than at random, and to see how a strategy behaves before putting a single euro into it.

Frequently asked questions

This article is for information only and is not investment advice. Trading crypto-assets involves a high risk, including the total loss of the capital used. Numerical examples are for illustration.