There are two opposite points of view:

The 1st one is known as: “Don’t waste your time on demo. It will not bring you money. You’ll miss the unique opportunity that market gives you TODAY. It will make you more harm etc.” It usually comes from the parties vitally interested in your start of real trading. And it’s not always a broker (though it’s vividly not beneficial to provide you with the free demo services) but all sorts of money making campaigns (all those ‘profitable’ strategy and/or signal offers) – in most cases they are against any demo testing as it will prove the offered product and/or service insolvency.

The 2nd one sounds as: “Don’t start real trading until you are fully confident. Take your time. Spend 2-3-6-month testing your strategy on demo first.” Two contentious points here to keep in mind – Demo trading will not show you the live execution simply because your demo trades cannot be executed at the real market (it’s just a kind of demonstration of the assets & trading conditions provided); Long demo testing may bring the opposite effect, i.e. to decrease your confidence, to give birth to fear of real trading. Besides, it will not answer the main question: Is that really appropriate for me? Demo risks and even losses won’t make your heart beating faster, will they?

So, what is better to do? The right answer is somewhere in the middle I believe. If we’re talking about the new knowledge and/or strategy – test first on demo, at least to obtain some understanding, the principle. Only after – try real with the investment amount you’re ready “to pay for knowledge”, i.e. to loose, without a serious negative impact to your life.

Cannot find a free DEMO to test on, without any obligation to make a deposit? Check this out – actually all globally regulated Brokers offer this option for free, with the trading platform immediate access granted.