The 5 best Day Trading demo account for beginners in comparison
Before investing your hard-earned cash in a broker, you would want to test out their platform to see if they offer products or services that you are looking for. Lucky for you, this review will give you all the information you need to decide on which broker to partner with.
Here are the 5 best day trading demo accounts that you can practice on for free.
#1: BDSwiss
BDSwiss, as the name suggests, is a Switzerland-based online broker that has been operating since 2012. Since its inception, it has continued to grow and now has more than 1.5 million clients from 186 countries. This company also boasts of its average monthly trading volume of upwards of $84 billion and more than 18,000 partnerships.
This broker offers a wide range of assets to choose from. Registered clients can trade forex, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. Below is a list of these assets.
Forex:
AUD/CAD AUD/CHF AUD/JPY AUD/NZD
AUD/USD CAD/CHF CAD/JPY CHF/JPY
EUR/AUD EUR/CAD EUR/CHF EUR/GBP
EUR/HUF EUR/JPY EUR/MXN EUR/NOK
EUR/NZD EUR/PLN EUR/SEK EUR/TRY
EUR/USD GBP/AUD GBP/CAD GBP/CHF
GBP/JPY GBP/NZD GBP/USD GBP/ZAR
HKD/JPY NOK/JPY NOK/SEK NZD/CAD
NZD/CHF NZD/JPY NZD/USD USD/CAD
USD/CHF USD/CNH USD/CZK USD/DKK
USD/HKD USD/HUF USD/JPY USD/MXN
USD/NOK USD/PLN USD/SEK USD/SGD
USD/TRY USD/ZAR ZAR/JPY
Indices:
AUS 200 ESP 35 EUR50
FRA 40 GBR 100 GER 30
HKG 50 NAS100 SPX500
US30
Commodities:
CL_BRENT USOIL
XAGUSD XAUEUR
XAUUSD XPDUSD
XPTUSD
Cryptocurrencies:
ZCASH Ripple TRON
Monero NEO Omise Go
IOTA Litecoin EOS
Ethereum Dash Bitcoin
Stocks or shares of companies are also tradeable with BDSwiss. They offer stocks from countries like Switzerland, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. You will find popular names like Adobe, Apple, Tesla, and more on BDSwiss’ trading platform.
When it comes to BDSwiss’ demo account, it comes equipped with $10,000 in virtual funds. You can use this to practice trading on any of the available assets on their platform. The only downside to their demo account is it requires a few extra steps to activate it. Aside from filling out their log-in form, you will need to contact them so they could complete the process.
You can reach their customer service representatives via their built-in live chat system on their website. This is available from 9:00 AM to 11:30 PM five days a week. You also have the option to send them an email with your concern, and they will get back to you as soon as possible.
Keep in mind that if you are located in Belgium, Cyprus, Congo, the United States, India, or South Africa, you are not eligible to sign up for an account with BDSwiss.
#2: eToro
eToro is considered one of the most famous online brokers out there. Because of this company’s extensive global reach, even non-traders have heard of their name. Founded in 2007 and initially known as RetailFX, eToro has built up its reputation and now serves more than 20 million traders from over 100 countries around the globe.
With this specific broker, you will have the opportunity to practice trading stocks of companies from countries like Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Helsinki, Frankfurt, London, Lisbon, Milan, Madrid, Oslo, Saudi Arabia, Paris, Zurich, and more. A few examples of famous names you will find on their list are Tesla, Nike, Disney, and Apple.
Stocks are not the only tradeable asset on eToro’s platform. They also offer commodities, currencies, indices, and cryptocurrencies. Check out the list of products offered on eToro below.
Commodities:
Gold Silver
Copper Platinum
Oil Natural Gas
Palladium Cocoa
Sugar Cotton
Aluminum Wheat
Nickel
Currencies
EUR/USD GBP/USD NZD/USD USD/CAD
USD/JPY USD/CHF AUD/USD EUR/GBP
EUR/CHF EUR/JPY GBP/JPY EUR/AUD
EUR/CAD AUD/JPY CAD/JPY CHF/JPY
USD/HKD USD/ZAR USD/RUB USD/CNH
AUD/CHF AUD/CAD AUD/NZD EUR/NZD
GBP/AUD GBP/CHF BGP/NZD NZD/CAD
NZD/CHF NZD/JPY CAD/CHF USD/NOK
USD/SEK NOK/SEK EUR/NOK EUR/SEK
USD/TRY USD/MXN USD/SGD GBP/CAD
ZAR/JPY EUR/PLN USD/HUF EUR/HUF
GBP/HUF CHF/HUF USD/PLN USD/CZK
USD/RON
Indicies:
NSDQ100 SPX500 UK100
GER30 HKG50 JPN225
ESPS35 EUSTX50 FRA40
AUS200 China50 DJ30
USDOLLAR
Cryptocurrencies:
Dogecoin Bitcoin Bitcoin Cash
Tezos Chainlink Uniswap
TRON ZCASH Binance Coin
Stellar NEO EOS
IOTA Cardano Ethereum Classic
Ripple Dash Litecoin
Ethereum
One key advantage of practicing on eToro’s platform is you will be able to utilize their groundbreaking copy trading services. As the name suggests, this allows you to mirror trades made by other clients to see if their strategy or method best suits your trading style. eToro is also well known as a social trading platform. This basically allows you to communicate or even get a second opinion from well-seasoned traders using eToro’s platform.
eToro’s demo account comes equipped with a virtual value of $10,000, which you can use to practice trading the available assets mentioned above. Signing up won’t take much of your time. You have the option to sign up by linking your Facebook or Google account, or you could fill-up the form and register with your personal email.
This broker features a help center that you can access directly from their platform. Here, you will find frequently asked questions and their corresponding answers. If you would prefer to speak with their customer service representatives, you may do so by opening a ticket containing your concern or question, and they will respond via email within one business day.
eToro’s website is available in English, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French, Polish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, Czech, Romanian, Danish, Thai, Vietnamese, and Finnish. Traders from Macao, Madagascar, India, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Japan, Turkey, and Iran can not use eToro’s platform.
#3: XTB
This Europe-based broker is known as one of the leading forex and CFD or Contract for Difference trading firms. It was founded in 2004 and now has offices in more than 13 countries, including Germany, France, Chile, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
With over 1876 global stocks and 140 ETFs to trade, XTB’s platform will surely maximize your exposure to these two asset classes. Some of the popular stocks that you can trade are Tesla, Amazon, Google, and Apple. When trading ETFs, you will find company names like Ark Fintech Innovation, Vanguard Total Bond Market, and many more.
XTB doesn’t only offer stocks and ETFs. You can also practice trading cryptocurrencies, forex, indices, and commodities. Below is a complete list of these asset classes.
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin Bitcoin Cash
Ehtereum Litecoin
Ripple Dash
Neo Monero
Stellar Cardano
IOTA XEM
TRON EOS
Ethereum Classic Zcash
Forex:
Indices:
AUS200 AUT20
BRAComp CHNComp
CZKCASH DE30
DE30.cash EU50
EU50.cash FRA40
FRA40.cash HK.cash
HKComp ITA40
ITA40.cash JAP225
KOSP200 MEXComp
NED25 RUS50
SPA35 SPA35.cash
SUI20 UK100
UK100.cash US100
US100.cash US2000
US30 US30.cash
US500 US500.cash
USDIDX VOLX
W20
Commodities:
Aluminum Cotton
Cocoa Coffee
Copper Corn
Emiss Gold
NATGAS Nickel
Oil Oil. WTI
Palladium Platinum
Silver Soybean
Sugar Tnote
Wheat Zinc
Practicing with XTB’s demo account gives you unlimited and complete access to their own award-winning platform, xStation 5, or the traditional MetaTrader 4 platform. You can utilize your virtual fund of $100,000 to master the platform or your strategy without losing real money.
Opening a demo account will require you to input your email address and country of residence. Once you submit the completed form, you can start trading on your desired platform. XTB’s customer service is available 24/5 and can be reached via telephone or email.
They also have a built-in live chat system on their website that supports 16 languages. These are English, French, Czech, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish, Thai, Arabic, and Vietnamese.
XTB is not available for traders from the United States, Australia, Canada, Kenya, Romania, Japan, Slovakia, Mauritius, Singapore, Israel, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Uganda, Syria, Cuba, Iray, and Iran.
#4: Plus500
Plus 500 is one of the leading CFD or Contract for Difference online broker. It operates under a holding company known as Plus500 Ltd and has been operating for 14 years and now has more than a million registered clients around the globe. It is the United Kingdom-based online broker with the main office located in the city of London.
With Plus 500, beginners can practice trading cryptocurrencies, commodities, indices, and forex. Below is a list of these tradeable assets.
Cryptocurrencies:
Bitcoin (BTCUSD) Ethereum/Bitcoin (ETHBTC)
Ethereum (ETH) Crypto 10 Index (Crypto10)
Litecoin (LTCUSD) Stellar (XLMUSD)
Bitcoin Cash ABC (BABUSD) Cardano (ADAUSD)
NEO (NEOUSD) EOS (EOSUSD)
Commodities:
Oil Natural Gas
Brent Oil Gold
Gasoline Wheat
Live Cattle Cotton
Platinum Silver
Copper Coffee
Lean Hogs Low Sulphur Gasoil
Palladium Cocoa
Corn Soybeans
Feeder Cattle Sugar
Heating Oil EUA
Indices:
USA 30 – Wall Street USA 500
Japan 225 Crypto 10 Index
US-TECH 100 ASX 200
USA 2000 Germany 30
Singapore 25 Swiss 20
China A50 VIX Volatility Index
Hong Kong 50 France 40
Europe 50 UK 100
Sweden 30 Real Estate Giants Index
Spain 35 Germany Mcap
NYSE FANG+ Index Italy 40
Poland 20 Norway 25
Hungary 12 Greece 25
Austria 20 Cannabis Stock Index
Forex:
EUR/MXN EUR/NOK EUR/PLN
EUR/SEK EUR/TRY EUR/ZAR
GBP/DKK GBP/NOK GBP/SEK
GBP/THB GBP/TRY GBP/ZAR
USD/CNH USD/DKK USD/CZK
USD/HKD USD/HRK USD/HUF
USD/KRW USD/NOK USD/MXN
USD/PLN USD/RON USD/RUB
USD/SEK USD/TRY USD/ZAR
SGD/JPY TRY/JPY DKK/NOK
SEK/NOK
This broker also offers more than 1000 shares from countries like Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Singapore, the United States of America, and many more. Some of the most popular stocks that you can trade with Plus 500 are Tesla, Spotify, Moderna, Virgin Galactic, and Disney. There are also a handful of options and ETFs to trade.
You can trade all these with Plus 500’s demo account that comes equipped with a virtual fund of €20,000. This will help you hone your skills as a day trader without the fear of risking your hard-earned money.
You won’t need to download a trading platform. Instead, Plus500 uses a WebTrader platform that can be accessed via your chosen web browser. Signing up for a demo account will give you unlimited access to this platform.
Customer support is available 24/7 via live chat or email if you have any concerns. However, they do not have a telephone support line for their clients.
It is important to note that you can not access Plus 500’s platform if you are from Iran, Belgium, United States, Canada, Cote D’Ivoire, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Egypt, Brazil, Pakistan, Cayman Islands, Philippines, and France.
#5: IQ Option
IQ Option was established in 2013 and has a main office located in Cyprus. This broker operates under IQ Options Europe Ltd. and now has more than 77 million registered users from 178 countries around the globe. With a monthly trading volume of 393 million dollars, IQ Option is one of the biggest brokers in the market.
This particular trader specializes in binary options trading. But this is not the only asset class they offer. Clients may also opt to trade foreign exchange, cryptocurrencies, commodities, stocks, CFDs, and ETFs. Below is a list of the tradeable assets on IQ Option’s platform.
Crypto:
Ethereum Classic Ethereum
OmiseGo Binance Coin
Dash Litecoin
Bitcoin Cash Ontology
NEO EOS
Ripple Stellar
Zcash Bitcoin
TRON Qtum
Cosmos IOTA
ETF:
S&P Oil & Gas Explor & Product Energy SPDR
UltraPro Short QQQ Materials Select Sector SPDR
S&P Metals & Mining ETF Utilities SPDR
Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF US Real Estate ETF
MSCI Japan ETF S&P 500 ETF
Consumer Discretionary SPDR Gold Miners ETF
UltraShort S&P500 20+ Year Treasury Bon ETF
Ishares Russel 2000 ETF Core MSCI Emerging Markets
MSCI Emerging Markets ETF QQQ Trust, Series 1
MSCI Mexico ETF ETFMG Alternative Harvest
Commodities:
Silver
Crude Oil WTI
Crude Brent
Forex:
CAD/JPY CHF/JPY GBP/JPY
USD/JPY EUR/JPY CAD/CHF
EUR/NZD AUD/JPY EUR/AUD
NZD/JPY AUD/NZD GBP/USD
USD/CHF EUR/USD EUR/GBP
EUR/CHF AUD/USD NZD/USD
AUD/CHF GBP/CAD USD/CAD
NZD/CHF EUR/CAD AUD/CAD
NZD/CAD
IQ Option has 180 stocks available for their clients to trade. For some professional or long-time traders, this could be considered a relatively small number. But for newbie traders, this is more than enough for you to practice on. You will find some famous company names like Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Tesla on this brokers platform.
Signing up for a demo account won’t take much of your time. In fact, all you have to do is input your complete name, country of residence, contact number, email address, and password. To make the process even easier, this broker gives you the option to sign up by linking your Google or Facebook account.
Owning a demo account gives you access to all the tools and assets that are available on IQ Option’s trading platform. You will also be given a virtual fund of $1,000, so you can practice trading with zero risks. The trading platform can be downloaded on both Mac and Windows computers. If you prefer to trade on a mobile device, this is also available on the Google Playstore and Apple App Store.
If you have any questions or you encounter any problems, IQ Option’s customer service representatives can be reached via email or telephone. You may also send them a message on their Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, or Instagram accounts.
What is a day trading demo account?
A day trading demo account, as the name suggests, is a demo account that allows you to make high-frequency trades that classify under day trading. Day trading is a form of trading that happens when a trader, on the same trading day, buys and sells a certain asset or financial instrument.
This strategy is widely used by scalpers or those that make multiple quick trades for numerous small gains. Other types of high-frequency traders or those that use trading bots can also widely benefit from day trading accounts as they sometimes encounter situations wherein they may want to exit their position on the same day.
Like all demo accounts, virtual funds will be credited to your demo account when you make one. You’ll be able to simulate real market conditions such as spreads, commissions, and all the assets that your broker will offer.
Of course, you will be given access to mostly all services and features that your selected broker has. Some of these features include charting software, access to research on technical and fundamental analysis, and as well as tutorials and guides for both newbies and veterans alike.
One of the best things about demo accounts is that they are free to make and usually just require you to input a few details, such as your email address and name. As for your credited virtual funds, you can use them however you like, with the only exception of not being able to withdraw them.
With that said, you can buy any asset class you want as long as it fits your allotted virtual portfolio, which varies between brokers. Leverage and margin also vary depending on your set amount and your choice of broker as well.
It is also recommended to double-check if your chosen broker puts a time limit on your demo account. Although only a fraction of brokers implements this, you might be surprised if you can’t perform any more actions with your demo account after a few weeks. However, this could be fixed by creating succeeding demo accounts since these are free.
Why should you use a day trading demo account?
One of the main reasons why you might want to try practicing with a day trading demo account is to know what type of trading suits you the most. Being a day trader has its ups and downs when being compared to other traders that have a longer time frame. One reason is that they might encounter a Pattern Day Trading (PDT) rule, or you might run into problems regarding settled cash. The ability to test out and realize these restrictions will save you a lot of time and stress in choosing a broker to partner with.
Generally, demo accounts of all kinds are a good way to practice since these are risk-free ways to learn how to trade. Without even spending a single cent, you get lots of experience in the world of trading.
For beginner day traders, this would give experience in high-frequency trading trades in assets such as forex, stocks, options as well as indices. Also, with the rise of the very volatile asset class of cryptocurrency, the number of assets you can trade is endless. Every day, you’ll be given an opportunity to trade and practice risk-free.
Furthermore, trading with a day trading demo account makes learning fast since you’ll be trading short-term trends. More roundtrip trades means more chances for trial and error, so feel free to use all your demo account’s capital as much and as often as you can,
Advantages and disadvantages of using day trading demo account
As an aspiring day trader, you would be familiar with which charts would have the potential for short-term trades, and you could use this over and over to accumulate and compound small gains. With most demo accounts offering multiple asset classes, you get to practice certain strategies over and over with your chosen asset.
Since demo accounts provide real market conditions, you could be able to assess which account type suits you. Aside from cash accounts and margin accounts, you should choose between a zero commission account or a fixed commission account, depending on which one suits you better.
If and when you transition to swing trading, you’d be able to observe short-term trends better, and that would translate to a higher win rate when holding for the mid-term. Since entry points are one of the most important aspects of trading, having a low price average on your asset will greatly benefit you.
Learning to day trade enhances your skills to analyze stock charts even quicker, together with plotting important price points. Day trading also improves your mentality in cutting your losses and tempering your greed.
How to trade using a day trading demo account
Upon making either a live or demo account, the first thing you should do is check your balance and the set leverage and margin for your account to avoid over-allocation. You then select the desired asset class you want to trade. Depending on your choice, the strategy might differ. For example, when it comes to stocks, you might need to trade breakouts rather than ranging trades that usually arise from forex.
From there, you can filter using third-party applications and websites to find a trade setup that is appropriate to your strategy and personality. Also, don’t forget to check the charts to manually filter and double-check if everything is in order to your liking.
As a day trader, you have multiple strategies and entry points depending on what the market gives you. Some of these opportunities come from breakouts, range trades, flash crashes, market-moving news updates, and many more. But to trade all these, first, you must master or at least be familiar with what supports and resistances are and their significance in trading and trading psychology.
On setting your trades manually, you need to input the correct code for the asset you want to trade. Upon checking your margin and leverage, you must fill up your desired volume and price for your desired financial instrument. Remember that if you’re day trading, it is imperative to close your positions on the day you bought them. It is highly suggested to know what time the market you’re trading on closes.
Tip and tricks
The easiest strategy to trade between the strategies mentioned is breakouts. To trade these, all you need to do is plot the resistance on the chart and buy when the price breaches that level. Usually, when a stock breaks out, there is underlying buying power that pushes the price up even further. The same applies for the opposite should you choose to buy puts or short a certain asset.
Despite being easy, breakouts are not foolproof, but you can increase your hit rate by only trading assets that are reaching all-time highs since these offer fewer resistances and more buyers at these price levels.
Make sure to close your trades before the market you’re trading on ends as well. This is to ensure that your portfolio doesn’t experience unwanted and unexpected drawdowns the next day due to market-moving updates. Treat tomorrow as a different day and find new opportunities.
As a day trader, you shouldn’t be expecting to double your account within a few days. The key here is consistency and trying to earn a bit every day. A percent increase in your portfolio in the next 200 days will translate to more than 500% in gains.
Last Updated on May 7, 2022 by Andre Witzel
