CFDs are complex products. Trading is risky and may not be suitable for everyone. Excess volatility increases risk further. Be cautious. Past performance is not an indication of future results.
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Practice first

Your first trade, step by step — on the demo

One small practice trade with virtual money, from opening the demo to closing the trade on purpose. Take it slowly — there is no clock on this.

Your first trade is a learning exercise, not a way to make money. You place it on a demo account, with virtual money, so a mistake costs nothing. The goal is simply to go through the whole process once — open, watch, close — and notice what each part actually does.

You need two things: a demo account and about fifteen minutes. Whether the trade ends positive or negative does not matter. The process is the lesson.

The eight steps

  1. Open a free demo account

    If you do not have one yet, the demo account page explains it. You need an email and a password — no documents, no deposit. The demo gives you virtual money to trade with, and there is no time limit.

  2. Find EUR/USD

    In the platform, search for EUR/USD. This is a currency pair: the price of one euro, measured in US dollars. It is traded around the world every day, so it is a sensible, well-known place to practise.

  3. Choose the smallest volume: 0.01

    A lot is the standard trade size. One lot of EUR/USD is 100,000 euros — far too big for learning. Choose 0.01 lots, the smallest size. If you later want real practice with tiny amounts, a Standard Cent account makes trades roughly 100 times smaller again — see account types.

  4. Decide the direction — and relax about it

    Buy means you expect the price to rise. Sell means you expect it to fall. Here is the honest part: for a learning trade, the direction hardly matters. You are practising the process, not predicting the market. Pick either one.

  5. Set a stop-loss

    A stop-loss closes your trade automatically if the price moves against you by a set amount. Place it about 20 pips away. A pip is the smallest common price step — 1.1000 to 1.1001 is one pip, and at 0.01 lots one pip is worth about 10 cents. So this stop risks around two dollars of virtual money. Check the numbers for any trade with the practice calculator.

  6. Place the order

    Press buy or sell, then confirm. You will probably see a small minus right away. That is the spread — the small gap between the buy price and the sell price, and the main cost of a trade. It is normal, not a mistake.

  7. Watch — but do not sit glued to it

    The platform shows two things moving: the price in pips, and your P/L — profit or loss right now. Watch for a few minutes to see how they change together. Then walk away and live your life. Staring at every tiny price move teaches nothing and feels awful. If the chart looks confusing, see reading a chart.

  8. Close the trade on purpose — then write three lines

    After an hour or a day, close the trade yourself. Do not just wait for the stop-loss to do it. (If you hold it overnight, the platform may add a small charge called swap — it shows this before you trade.) Plus or minus, the result does not matter. Now write three lines: why you entered, where your stop was, and what you felt. That note is worth more than the outcome.

What you just learned

In one small trade you have seen:

  • How an order is actually placed — buy or sell, size, stop, confirm.
  • What a pip, a lot and a stop-loss mean in practice, not just as words.
  • That the spread is a real cost you pay the moment you enter.
  • What it feels like to watch an open trade move — calmer than expected, or not.
  • That one result means almost nothing. The process is what you can repeat.

One demo trade does not make you a trader. A run of calm, written-down ones starts to. One honest caveat: demo results don't guarantee real-account results — real money adds real emotions. That is exactly why practice comes first.

Quick questions

What if my first trade loses?

Then it worked. It was virtual money, so the loss cost you nothing — a cheap lesson that many traders pay real money for. Many people lose their first trade. Read your three-line note, decide what you would change, and place the next one.

How many practice trades before real money?

Honestly: there is no magic number, and anyone who names one is guessing. It depends on how steady the process feels — placing the stop without thinking twice, closing without panic, writing the note every time. The demo account page has a readiness checklist. Work through it before you even consider a real account.

Keep going

Demo account

What a demo is, how to open one, and a checklist to tell when practice is actually working.

About the demo

Practice calculator

Type your own trade size and stop distance, and see the risk in plain numbers before you click anything.

Try the calculator

Reading a chart

What the candles and lines on a price chart actually show — enough to follow your own trade.

Read a chart

Ready to walk through these eight steps yourself?

Open a free demo at Exness — virtual money, no time limit, no documents needed. Practise the process until it feels boring. A real account can wait.

Open a free demo at Exness