Founded in 2013, IQ Option is one of the fastest growing online trading platforms. In the UK alone, there are over 20 million customers using IQ Option to trade forex, cryptocurrencies and options. If you are considering joining them, IQ Option demo account is a great place to start. To help grasp all of its pros and cons, here we covered:
- IQ Option Platform Overview
- Getting started with IQ Option demo account
- Advantages and disadvantages of a demo account
- Comparing the demo accounts
- Ongoing support and training from IQ Option
- The reliability of IQ Option
Is IQ Option the platform for me?
There is a bewildering array of platforms available for traders, and many offer demo accounts for their customers to try before investing real capital. While these demo accounts are well worth investigating, time constraints make it impossible to try them all, so it makes sense to limit these options by considering first the reputation the different trading platforms enjoy. IQ Option is a relatively new platform and there are many more established companies you may also be considering.
Finding an IQ Option review to read and comparing it with the reviews of other traders may help. However, it is also worth looking at the awards given to trading companies by respected bodies. A variety of awards, particularly if they are recent, would imply that the company is solid. The key awards IQ option received include:
- 2017 Award of Excellence, the highest honour among The Communicator Awards from The Academy of interactive and Visual Arts
- Forex Awards 2014 Best Trading Platform
- Best Mobile Trading Platform 2015 IFM Awards
- The Web Marketing Association 2016 Best Technology Application for the IQ Option mobile app
- Century International Quality Gold ERA Award
These awards indicate IQ Option's platform is worth a closer look, and a demo account is a good way to gain a feel for the platform.
Getting started with IQ Option demo account
Upon signing up to a demo account, customers are given $1,000 of virtual capital with which to trade. Digital options are one of the simplest methods to trade commodities, stocks and currencies. With sound strategies, there is a good likelihood of making a profit. Nevertheless, there are also many common mistakes for the new trader to make, so the demo account works in a similar fashion to the real one, allowing the user to experience the technical analysis charts just as on the real platform. The quotes are real, giving an experience as close as possible to the real thing. Even experienced traders will often return to a demo account to try out a new strategy before risking it with real capital. IQ Option offers support to its virtual clients, just as to those using real capital, with a dedicated team of experts available while using the demo account.
While many trading platforms offer demo accounts, many companies have little information available on their websites with further details of what the account involves and how it works. IQ Option, by comparison, provides plenty of detail, conveying the impression that they regard the IQ Option Practice Account highly and value the input it gives to their trading platform. The demo account is a risk-free way of trading. The minimum deposit for trading with IQ Option is anyway low, at just $10, but it is not even necessary to deposit that to start trading on the demo account.
Advantages and disadvantages of a demo account
There are plenty of advantages to using a demo account. Traders will gain valuable knowledge of the market and the platform without any risk to their capital. Time spent may be extensive but it is a useful training tool, allowing skills to be honed and strategies tested. With different platforms having their own features, it is a useful way to see if the platform is the right one for you, and it is even recommended that experienced traders set up a demo account when changing platform.
However, it is important to remember that demo accounts have limitations. Success in a demo account may not lead to instant success in the real markets. One of the key differences is the psychological impact caused by the movement of the market. Responding to a loss of real capital is likely to be different from the response if the loss is virtual. The demo experience comes close to replicating the real market, but it is not an exact copy.
For example, the demo accounts offer a large amount of capital with which to trade. In the case of the IQ Option Practice Account, it is $1,000. However, the new trader is most unlikely to have such funds at their disposal. The virtual market also does not allow for features such as slippage and expedited transactions, which would be a common feature of the real markets.
Overcoming the disadvantages
The key is to treat IQ Option Demo Account as a training program with different stages. Start by familiarizing with different tools and techniques. Learning how to place the trades and how to place a stop order when necessary are key skills, which would cost money if that knowledge was not present when trading with real money. However, once you are familiar with the platform, it is worth making some adjustments to your trading to more closely replicate the real market. These can include the following methods:
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- Trade with small amounts of virtual capital. You know how much you are likely to have to trade with when you start trading for real, so use similar amounts of virtual capital to give yourself a real feel for how much you might gain or lose.
- Add in factors, such as slippage or orders not fulfilled, yourself. If an order is within one cent of the high or low of the move, assume it was not fulfilled. Slippage is likely to be one cent on higher stocks, increasing for options that are more volatile, so account for this in your records.
- Reward yourself for virtual profits or withhold a treat for losses, to enable both profits and losses to feel more real. This will allow you to understand how these will psychologically affect you.
Strengths of the IQ Option Demo Account
While it may not initially appear to be one of the most important features of a trading platform, a good demo account can set you up for successful trading once you start with real capital. Compared to some other demo accounts, the IQ Option Demo Account has a number of advantages:
- Anyone can have a demo account. It is easy to sign up and there is no need to open a live account or make any deposit before becoming a trader on the demo account.
- It is described as free because it is. It includes all the features of the real account.
- IQ Option won an award for the best trading platform and this same platform is what you experience in the demo.
- Unlike many other demo accounts that only allow access for 30 days, IQ Option gives access to the demo account for as long as you require, so there is no need to rush to test out all the features.
Switching From a Demo to a Real Account
Once you have opened a real account, it is straightforward to switch between the real IQ Option account and your demo account, so you can continue to keep all the advantages of the demo account to test new strategies. Taking the leap from trading on the IQ Option Practice Account to trading for real can be a big one, particularly for new traders. When you sign up to IQ Option, you will gain access to a large number of resources to help you hone your skills. These include video tutorials, articles, webinars and e-books. The website also posts regular blog articles, enabling you to easily keep up to date with new trends and events that may affect your trading.
The website is easy to use, with a category of FAQs to readily answer many of your concerns. Customer services can be reached by phone 24/7, with dedicated numbers for different countries. Additionally, you can contact IQ Option by email or live chat from the live chat icons on the website or app. It is often recommended that new trader start trading with micro lots, as a bridge between a demo account and the full experience. This involves real money but at an amount that is affordable to lose. However, at the time of writing, IQ Option does not offer micro lots.
How reliable is IQ Option?
When trading, although there can never be any guarantees of profits, the experience will be smoother and you stand a greater chance of success by choosing what you consider the best forex broker. Although not as long established as some trading platforms, IQ Option has quickly built up a positive reputation, particularly as they branched out into forex trading, CFDs, ETFs and cryptocurrencies. Even with deposits as low as $10, their spreads on forex and CFD products are some of the best in the industry. Offering services in over 178 countries around the world, they continue to go from strength to strength.
An interesting feature of the company is that they do not use a mainstream trading platform like MT4, but keep to their own in-house developed platform. As this is an attractive interface, this is not necessarily a disadvantage, although features such as charting and analysis options are not as developed as they could be. Based in Cyprus, the company gained a CySec licence in 2014, with the number 247/14. It is registered with many of Europe’s other regulatory bodies, including the UK’s FCA.
Toll-free regional phone numbers make the company easy to contact from anywhere in the world and it is even possible for clients to email the CEO and CAO directly. Deposits at IQ Option start as low as $10, while the maximum daily deposit can be up to $1,000,000. IQ Option aims to appeal to both the small and the large trader.
IQ Option demo account verdict
Demo accounts are an ideal way to test the market while honing abilities and experimenting with new strategies. The IQ Option Demo Account is one of the best examples of these practice accounts. Unlike many brokers who set up a demo but then pay it little attention, IQ Option rightly regards their demo account as one of their key strengths. With no time constraints, you can spend as long as you need on the demo account before deciding whether to move on to a real account.
However, it is worth investigating the real accounts before spending time on the demo. IQ Option is a fast-growing company with much to recommend them. There are limitations, such as the inability to trade with micro lots, and quirks such as their determination to stick with their own in-house platform. However, as long as you are aware of these, setting up a demo account is highly recommended for both the new trader and for the more experienced trader who is considering switching to IQ Options.
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