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Basically when you look at demo account you see just the same view as you see when looking at live account. But there are few differences that you need to be aware of before starting trading real money. Orders slippages Firstly note that on demo account there was no real execution involved so it basically was working as reliable as none of real accounts ever will be. Paper trading is easy from this point of view as you always get prices that you want to get. In real trading during volatile times you can experience slippages which will cause your stoploss orders to get filled lower or higher than desired price. Same with any other orders that you may want to put into trading platform. Although many beginner traders throw accusations on brokers when it happens, you need to know its completely natural situation that during aggressive price jumps there can be not one person to buy or to sell to on desired price. This will cause system to look for best available price during this time which can be quite far from original order price. This is one of risks that you need to take under consideration while trading real account. Trading live psychologyPsychology makes it uneasy to trade real money. You can say it's completely different than trading virtual number as your mind makes it completely different. From my experience I can tell you that if I would be able to trade real money as I trade virtual money I would be best trader around. I guess it is the same for most of traders I know. If you get wiped out from demo account you can easily open another one - with real account it is little more painful.
Demo doesn't prepare you for everythingIn case of software failure on demo account you just switch off your computer. With real account if you have orders and positions opened you need a way to control them. In case of power outage, hardware or internet connection failure or any other situation old fashion telephone is very helpful... if you know the number where you need to call. Dealers chatroom in case of software malfunction are also very helpful if you have internet connection working. It is good to have backup If you plan to trade for a living at some point it's good to have backup pc with backup internet connection based on different provider or on dial up connection. If you are in some remote location you may find skype services pretty useful as you can call whole world almost for free.
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