What demo teaches accurately
Order entry, stop and target placement, platform navigation, position sizing arithmetic and how margin consumption changes as you add positions. These transfer perfectly to live trading.
Where demo misleads
Demo removes the emotional weight of real losses and often fills orders more cleanly during volatile moments. It also encourages oversized positions because the balance is meaningless.
Set the demo balance to the amount you actually intend to deposit. A 100,000 unit demo trained with 10 unit discipline teaches nothing useful.
A structured transition plan
Trade the demo with realistic size for at least thirty trades, record every one, then move to live with the smallest size the platform allows for another thirty. Only scale after the live sample matches the demo behaviour.
Frequently asked questions
Many brokers archive demo accounts after a period of inactivity. Logging in occasionally keeps them alive.