What demo teaches, and what it cannot
A demo account is a genuinely useful instrument, provided you know precisely what it is testing.
What it reproduces well
- Platform mechanics. Order types, stop placement, closing, modifying. Learn these where mistakes are free.
- Your analysis. Whether you can identify structure, place a stop where it belongs, and follow a checklist.
- Your process. Journalling, sizing arithmetic, session discipline.
For all of this, demo is not a compromise. It is the correct tool.
What it does not reproduce
Execution. Demo fills are often idealised — no slippage, no requotes, spreads at their tightest. A live account in a fast market behaves differently, and the difference is largest exactly when it matters most.
Emotion. This is the whole gap, and it is not a small one. A $200 loss on demo is a number. The same loss live is money that was going to be something. Every discipline problem in trading lives here, and demo cannot test any of it.
A trader with six flawless demo months can still take a revenge trade in their first live week.