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Open a free demo trading account
Experience risk-free trading on thousands of financial instruments and sharpen your skills using our award-winning platform.¹
Practice trading with 20,000 CHF in virtual funds
Develop your knowledge with our educational content
Test your strategies wherever you are with our mobile apps
What is a demo trading account?
A demo trading account or trading simulator is a virtual trading environment that mimics real market conditions without financial risk. It provides an authentic market experience – excluding the use of any real money – offering access to live market data, advanced trading tools and comprehensive educational resources.
A demo account allows you to build practical experience and gain confidence before moving on to live trading. Even if you already have a live account, or if you decide to create a live account, you can continue using our trading simulator.
Our advanced trading simulator accurately reflects real market conditions in every way - except that no real money is at stake.
When you open a demo trading account with us, you receive:
- Instant, free access to our full-featured online trading platform
- CHF 20,000 in virtual funds for practice
- Real-time data from 17,000+ global markets, including indices, forex, shares, commodities and cryptocurrencies
What our clients say about our demo trading account
FAQs
Is trading with a demo account worth it?
Using a trading simulator can be invaluable, regardless of your experience level as a trader. A demo account supports your development in several key areas that may improve your chances of achieving positive outcomes when entering the markets. These include skill-building, boosting your confidence, testing various strategies, and becoming familiar with different financial instruments and platform functionalities.
However, it's essential to remember that even with careful planning and thorough preparation, the markets can move against you. Losses are a possibility, and even experienced traders are not immune.
Can I use the IG demo trading account for free?
Yes, our demo trading account is completely free – there are no hidden costs or usage limits.
When you sign up, you'll receive immediate access, along with CHF 20,000 in virtual funds. You'll have unrestricted access to real-time market data across more than 17,000 markets, allowing you to practise trading in real market conditions for as long as you need.
How does a demo trading account differ from a live account?
A demo trading account closely replicates the conditions of a live trading account, with the key difference being that no real money is involved.
Positions taken using a trading simulator aren’t subject to some factors that can affect outcomes in live trading. For instance, demo trading does not involve margin calls or automatic position closures. Additionally, elements such as out-of-hours price movements, slippage, and dividend adjustments impact live trading but do not affect simulated trading.
It's important to note that actual market conditions and execution speeds may vary when you transition to live trading. This is due to factors such as market impact, execution infrastructure, liquidity and trading psychology.
Is CHF 500 enough to start trading?
While it's possible to open a live trading account with CHF 500, it could be useful to build a solid understanding of how the markets work before trading with real money. Practising on a trading simulator before opening a live account can help you understand important concepts like risk management, trading costs and margin requirements.
Before committing real funds to trading, it's essential to develop and test your trading strategy, with due consideration to your financial goals and risk tolerance. With us, you’d trade using leverage – which comes with significant risk and complexity.
Leverage lets you open a bigger position with a relatively much smaller deposit called ‘margin’. When using leverage, both potential profits and losses are magnified to the full position size. So, you could incur losses rapidly. Your losses could even exceed the deposit you paid to open the position.
Can I withdraw money from a demo account?
No, you can’t withdraw money from a demo account, as it uses virtual funds intended solely for practice. All profits and losses generated in our trading simulator have no real monetary value. This lets you test various trading strategies without financial risk - but it also means that any gains cannot be converted into real money.
How do I trade using a demo account?
Getting started with our demo trading account is simple. Just follow these steps:
- Create your free demo account
- Log in to our trading platform
- Browse the available markets
- Conduct your research
- Place practise trades using virtual funds
- Monitor and close your positions
- Review and analyse your trading performance
Our platform also offers integrated educational resources to support your learning. If you need help at any point, our customer support team is ready to assist you.
What is the difference between a demo trading account, trading simulator and paper trading account?
A demo trading account, trading simulator, and paper trading account all refer to the same concept. They offer a risk-free environment where you can practice trading with virtual funds under real market conditions.
The term 'paper trading' originates from the old practice of tracking hypothetical trades on paper. Today, platforms like ours have transformed this concept into advanced, digital trading simulators that deliver a realistic and modern trading experience.
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¹Best platform for the active trader, best multi-platform provider and best finance app as awarded at the ADVFN International Financial Awards 2024.
