Regardless of whether you are a seasoned trader or a rookie just getting started, demo accounts are one of the most valuable tools at your disposal.
Demo accounts give you an opportunity to try out an online trading and investment platform in a risk-free environment. This is important as there can often be significant differences between trading platforms when it comes to ease of use and the selection of trading tools at your disposal.
With these benefits in mind, XM – one of the leading global brokers of forex and CFDs on shares, futures, indices, meals, and energies – has made a full-featured demo account available to anyone who wants to try out the platform.
In this article, we will give you a quick rundown of what the XM demo account has to offer and how it compares to other similarly sized brokers. We will also go through the demo account creation process, which should give you a better idea of what’s involved in the process!
Setting up and getting started with an XM demo account is a relatively quick and straightforward process. Unlike some other platforms that we have reviewed in the past – which have lengthy, detailed sign-up processes requiring significant amounts of personal information – you can get up and running in less than five minutes.
Keep reading for a quick overview of what the process should look like!
To start the account creation process, you will first need to navigate to the XM broker homepage. From here, simply click on the ‘Open a Demo Account’ button. This will initiate the demo account creation process.
Once you have initiated the XM demo account creation process, you will then have to enter in some personal details to create your account.
At this early stage, XM does not require you to provide much personal information, which is also really great to see!
Simply fill in your full name, country of residence, phone number and email address, and then choose a secure password.
We were particularly impressed by how little personal information XM requires from you at this early stage when compared to other platforms that require you to create a full account before gaining access to the demo account. This makes the process of setting up a demo account that little bit easier!
Once you have entered in your personal details, you can then choose what type of demo account you want.
The XM demo account allows you to create either an MT4 account or an MT5 account. The MT5 account gives you access to forex and CFDs on stocks, equity indices, metals and energies, while the MT4 account covers forex and CFDs on equity indices, metals and energies.
You can also vary your base currency depending on where in the world you are located. Other options include account type (Standard or XM Zero) and minimum initial investment amount. This runs from $1,000 all the way up to $5m, so you can be as generous as you want!
Once you have created a password, you will then be sent an email to confirm your account. This will contain a link that you have to click to complete the verification process. Once verified, you will then be able to move on to the next steps in the account creation process!
With your account fully verified, you will then be able to take it out for a test run!
Start by downloading the XM trading platform, which comes in MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 versions, in addition to the XM WebTader. The MT4 and MT5 platforms come in both PC and Mac versions, as well as mobile devices.
Of these options, the XM WebTrader is the easiest option to set up as it doesn’t require you to download a dedicated app. Instead, the XM trading platform runs directly in your browser and gives you full access to your account.
This is a great option for novice traders as the level of commitment required and the set-up time is much lower!
We found the XM WebTrader to work equally well on most popular browsers, including Brave, Google Chrome and Safari.
Regardless of the platform you choose to try out, the next step in the process will be the same: log into your trading account and start trading!
The account login process will initiate when you load up the desktop app or the WebTrader. You will be required to enter your account ID and password. Once this has been accepted, you will then be presented with your account dashboard.
Login details will be sent to you directly via email, so be sure to keep any emails that XM sends you during the account creation process! Generally, the login process is pretty smooth, but if you run into any issues, then the customer support team is on hand to help you out!
In terms of how the XM demo account stacks up with the competition, we were generally pretty happy with what the development team has put together. The XM team wants you to be able to get the full experience of using the product before committing any cash, and you never feel pressured to set up a real account to get the full experience.
With this in mind, let’s look at some of the features on offer in more detail!
Those of you looking to set up an XM demo account will be pleased to know that you are allowed to open five demo accounts in total. While this is by no means unusual, we found this to be a really great feature that can bring a lot of value to your demo account experience.
It is particularly useful for those of you using demo accounts to try out different trading tools and strategies. This gives you plenty of scope to do in-depth testing to see what suits your needs best before committing any funds!
You can do this at the set-up stage, where you can create a demo account with specific features such as different trading platforms, base currencies, account types, leverage thresholds and minimum deposits. This turns the XM demo account from something relatively basic into a more robust tool.
In terms of what types of trades you can make with your demo account and the charting tools on offer, you are given access to everything you would get with a free account. The only difference is that you are trading with virtual units of currency rather than your own funds. This includes the ability to watch and track specific markets, different charting options and easy trade execution.
First-time users might get a little overwhelmed by all of the features on offer. However, once you play around with the software for a bit, it gets less intimidating. This is the main benefit of using the demo account as it gives you the option to get comfortable with the software before putting up any funds.
We were generally impressed with everything that the XM demo account had to offer and never felt like we were missing out compared to the real account!
There are many general reasons why brokers choose to take advantage of the opportunity to open a demo account. Most immediately, the biggest benefit is that it allows you to try out an online trading platform or broker in a risk-free environment. This is particularly useful as there can often be quite a large degree of difference between brokers. Settling on the right broker for you can often take quite a bit of time, and by using a demo account, you can speed up this process.
Demo accounts are also useful for trying out new strategies or putting the educational content you have been learning into practice. Being able to do this in a risk-free environment without putting any real funds on the line makes this possible!
The XM demo account has several features that makes it particularly useful. Firstly, the XM demo account can be used on both the MT4, MT5 and WebTrader variations. Each of these platforms provides a distinct trading experience that might not be for everyone.
Secondly, the XM demo account is full featured and does not lack any of the advanced features from the full version. As such, you can get a full overview of how the XM platform performs before opening a real account.
And thirdly, XM allows you to create up to five demo accounts. This is useful if you want to play around with the different platform options and account types and to get a sense of which one performs the best.
There are no major differences between the XM demo account and the live account.
All of the features from the full version are included, and you can make the same kinds of trade that you could if you were trading with real cash.
The main differences between the two relate to some of the trading conditions on offer, which can’t really be replicated in a ‘virtual’ environment. For example, with a live forex account, you will sometimes incur what is known as ‘slippage’. Slippage occurs when a trade order is filled at a price that is slightly different from the price that was requested. It typically happens when there is high volatility in the markets or when orders cannot be matched at the prices that have been requested.
More generally, broker errors are more likely to occur in a live environment than a demo one. In a live environment, brokers will be required to correct these. However, in a demo environment, they will not.
Beyond these differences in trading conditions, the main difference between demo and live accounts will come from within the trader themselves. This is because traders naturally react differently to market information when they are playing with virtual funds rather than with their own cash.
In terms of the account management options open to those with demo accounts, there are not too many options to play with. This is because when you open an XM demo account, you are only providing a limited amount of personal details and do not have to include any financial information.
As such, you are given relatively basic account management options, which includes things such as opening a new demo account, resetting your password, closing your account and switching to a different demo account. To access these limited account management options, click the ‘Account Management’ tab in the upper right part of the page.
Those of you looking to set up an XM demo account will be pleased to know that you are permitted to open five demo accounts in total. While this is by no means unusual, we found this to be a really great feature that can bring a lot of value to your demo account experience.
It is particularly useful for those of you using demo accounts to try out different trading tools and strategies. This gives you plenty of scope to do in-depth testing to see what suits your needs best before committing any funds!
For those of you looking to keep using your XM demo account, the broker does not put an expiration date on demo accounts. As such, you can use the demo account for as long as you want without having to worry about a time limit!
This is incredibly useful if you want to keep your demo account live to practice different trading strategies and techniques. It should be noted, however, that you must keep any demo accounts active to keep them live. Typically, if demo accounts are inactive for 30 days or more, they will be cancelled.
This compares well with other similarly sized brokers. It means that XM is not rushing users to create a funded account and is happy to leave them open for as long as they are useful to individual traders.
If you allow your demo accounts to become inactive, they will be cancelled by XM. Unfortunately, this also means that you will be unable to restore them once they have been cancelled.
However, XM makes it relatively easy to keep your account live provided that you meet the minimum activity requirements. Additionally, as you can open up to five demo accounts, if one account does get cancelled, you can simply open another one!
Once you have spent some time using the XM demo account, you might be wondering, what are the next steps?
Thankfully, XM has made the process of transitioning from a demo account to a live account relatively seamless. Once your demo account has expired, or if you want to close it down, you can simply log out and select ‘Delete Account Information’. This will delete your demo account and any information stored on it – such as your trading history or watch list.
However, you might also choose to keep one or all of your demo accounts live. These will be retained provided that you meet the minimum activity requirements.
Once you have made the decision to set up a real account, the registration processes are essentially the same. Simply navigate to the homepage and select the ‘Open an Account’ button, which will be located next to the ‘Open a Demo Account’ button.