A chain, not a checklist

Four steps before a first deposit — and what each one hands to the next (Bangladesh)

This is not a list of tasks that can be done in any order. Each step produces one specific thing the following step needs as input, which is why doing them backwards does not just feel awkward — it leaves a later step with nothing to work from. Below: what each step produces, and what is missing when it is skipped.

The chain, in one line: a choice produces a unit, a registration produces a number, a measurement produces an amount, and only then does a transfer have all three of the things a funding screen is going to ask for. Reversed — which is the usual order — the screen is opened first and the three inputs are improvised while it is open.

The chain, step by step

Choose the account type and the unit — produces: a currency

An account counts in one currency, chosen when it is created and fixed for that account afterwards. The type chosen alongside it sets the entry minimum and how small a trade can be. Both are one screen and neither can be revised later without opening another account.

Missing without it: every figure downstream is in a unit you did not choose deliberately, and a sum sent from a source in another currency is converted before it is credited. What each type fixes.
Register — produces: an account number

Registration takes a few minutes and creates the profile plus the trading account inside it. That account carries the number a transfer is later addressed to. A profile can carry several, so the number is the thing to keep, not the phrase «my account».

Missing without it: a destination. A transfer has to be addressed to a number, and «the broker» is not one. What the step involves.
Measure — produces: an amount

Open a demo, find the smallest position the ticket accepts, and read what one of them takes hold of. Those two readings turn the amount from a feeling into a multiplication, and they cost nothing because a demo is free and needs no documents.

Missing without it: a figure. The one that gets used instead is whatever the minimum happened to be, which is a threshold rather than an answer. How to take the readings.
Send — produces: a record

With a unit, a number and an amount in hand, the funding screen has nothing left to improvise. What it asks for is already decided, and what it states — the cost, the expected time, the destination — is read rather than guessed at.

Missing without it: evidence. The record is the typed amount, the destination number, the moment of confirming and the expected time shown. The five moments of one transfer.

Running alongside, on its own timing

One thing is not part of the chain and should not wait for it: the identity check. It is a separate step handled by the broker, it is asked once rather than per transfer, and it has no bearing on whether money can go in.

It is worth starting early for one unglamorous reason — it costs nothing to complete on an account holding nothing, and it is one fewer thing running at a moment when something else has your attention. Registration and the check are two different steps and the second is not implied by the first.

Three things that belong nowhere near the front

Often done first	Where it belongs	Why
Comparing platforms in detail	Any time, for nothing	All of them show the same account. None of them carries a transfer, so none of them changes a single input in the chain
Learning to read charts	Any time, on a free demo	It touches none of the four steps and needs no money at all. Rehearse it for nothing
Deciding what to trade	After step four	A position cannot be opened with money that has not been credited yet, and the decision does not improve while waiting

None of the three is a waste of time. They are simply not inputs to anything, which is what puts them outside the chain.

How long the chain really takes

Step one is a screen. Step two is a few minutes. Step three is one position on a demo and the time it takes to write two numbers down. Step four is a confirmation. The total is an evening, and none of it has to be done in one sitting.

There is also no clock on an unfunded account: nothing expires, holding one carries no monthly charge, and there is no minimum activity to keep it open. That is worth knowing precisely because it removes the argument for rushing steps one to three in order to reach step four.

What this page cannot do

It puts the steps in order and it cannot supply the figures. Which options are open to a particular account, what each costs and how long each is expected to take depend on the account and the region, and they are shown inside the Personal Area before each confirmation. It also cannot make step three for you — trading with leverage can lose money, and no ordering of steps changes what an amount can do once it is credited.

Questions about the order

Can money go in before the identity check is finished?

The check is a separate step on its own timing and is not part of the chain above. Completing it early is cheap on an empty account and takes one thing off the list later.

Can the account currency be changed afterwards?

It is fixed per account at creation, so a different unit means a different account. That is why it sits at step one rather than anywhere else.

Is a demo really necessary before funding?

Nothing requires it. What it supplies is step three's output — an amount based on two readings rather than on a minimum — and there is no other free way to get that.

What if the account is already registered and funded?

Then the chain is behind you and the useful page is the one about the transfer after the first. Why the second one is different.

Does the account type have to be decided before registering?

It is chosen as part of creating the account, which is why it sits first. A profile can hold more than one account, so a second type can be added later without undoing anything.

How small can the first amount be?

Standard and Standard Cent accounts have no minimum initial deposit, so the floor is what makes the account usable rather than what a screen will accept. Work out where that floor is.

Continue along the chain

Step one

The unit and the type, and what each fixes for good.

Choose the account

Step two

What registration creates, and where the number appears.

Open the account

Step three

Four readings that produce the amount.

Measure it

Steps one to three cost nothing

A free demo account opens on an email and a password, with no documents and no transfer, and it covers everything up to the funding screen.

Open a free demo at Exness