HERE IS A LIST OF FOREX BROKERS THAT OFFER DEMO ACCOUNTS TO NIGERIANS
Best Free Forex Demo Accounts in Nigeria
A demo account is one of the most important features a broker can offer to its traders. The demo account allows traders, especially new ones, to learn the ins and outs of the financial market without risking their money. Advanced traders can also use the demo account to test new trading strategies before implementing them on the real account. The demo account simulates real trading conditions without a trader's money at risk.
Today, we will look at some of the best free forex demo accounts in Nigeria. We will also look at the conditions of the demo accounts such as the number of chips. Let’s jump in.
Best Free Forex Demo Accounts
Exness
Exness is one of the most popular trading platforms among Nigerian and African traders at large. Its free forex demo account allows Nigerian traders to sharpen their skills and strategies, as well as master unique trading tools with no risk. The demo account can be accessed on various platforms including desktop and mobile platforms. Once a trader registers for a demo account, they get a balance of $10,000 in virtual currency on the standard MT5 demo account for traders to practice. Once this balance is depleted, traders can top it up by going to their Personal Area and clicking on Set Balance on the demo trading account in the My Accounts tab.
Notably, Exness has licenses and regulations from several regulatory bodies. The broker has regulations from the FSCA in South Africa, the CMA in Kenya, the CySEC in Cyprus, and the FCA in the UK. This makes it one of the top choices for Nigerian traders.
Further, Exness has a variety of trading instruments for its Nigerian traders to choose from. The broker's wide range of markets includes forex, stocks, indices, energies, metals, and cryptocurrencies. The broker also offers its traders world-class trading platforms including MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and Exness Terminal.
Exness also has several real accounts a trader can choose from to trade with real money. The accounts include the standard account, pro, zero, and raw spread. Spreads on this broker are competitively low starting from as low as 0.2 pips on the standard account. They can go even lower on the professional accounts with commissions applied on two of the accounts.
XM.com
XM.com allows its traders to keep their demo account parallel to their trading account unlimitedly. This means that it does not expire. The only disadvantage of a demo account is that it does not give a trader the feel of proper risk management. The solution is to open a real account when you have tested the basics. Sure enough, XM.com has various trading accounts a trader can choose from. These accounts include micro accounts, standard accounts, Ultra-low standard accounts, and shares accounts. On XM spreads can go as low as 0.6 pips.
The more trading instruments a trader can access the more they can diversify their trading portfolios. Positively, clients on XM are spoiled for choice. Traders can invest in over 1000 trading instruments including CFDs on forex, commodities, indices, stocks, shares, and energies. Trading instruments on XM.com can be accessed on market standard trading platforms such as MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and XM Trading Point app.
Lastly, the broker has regulations and licenses from various regulators in the market. The broker is regulated by the FSC in Belize, the CySEC in Cyprus, and the DFSA in the DIFC.
Pepperstone
Pepperstone is another popular broker offering Nigerian traders a free forex demo account. The demo account on Pepperstone can be created in either the standard or the razor accounts. The account provides real market pricing and has a limited time of 60 days on MT4 and MT5. The cTrader and TradingView demo accounts do not expire. MT4/MT5 demo accounts can be turned into non-expiry if the client is approved and has a live and funded account.
Further, the demo accounts come with up to 50,000 virtual funds in any trading account currencies the broker offers. The maximum number of demo accounts a trader can have is 10 if they have an existing live account and 5 if they do not have a live account.
For live trading, Pepperstone offers two main trading account types which include the razor and standard accounts. The standard account features spreads from 1.0 pips for major currency pairs with no commission. On the other hand, the razor account has spread from as low as 0.0 pips for major currency pairs with a small commission depending on the trading platform.
Further, Pepperstone allows diversification of trading portfolios due to its variety of trading instruments. The range of markets the broker offers includes forex, indices, commodities, stocks, crypto, and energies. Traders can invest in a variety of markets on world-class platforms the broker offers. The platforms available include MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, Pepperstone Trading Platform and TradingView. Finally, the broker has regulations from the CMA in Kenya, the CySEC in Cyprus, the FCA in the UK, and ASIC in Australia.
FP Markets
Next up is FP Markets. Demo accounts on FP Markets are available to all traders on the MT4 trading platform. The FP Markets demo account comes loaded with up to $100,000 in virtual funds to help traders experiment, and test new skills and strategies with no risk. Further, provided a trader uses their demo account regularly, it will not expire.
Nigerian traders can choose over 10,000 assets on the FP Markets trading site. The list of tradeable assets includes forex pairs alongside CFDs on indices, commodities, stocks, bonds, and ETFs. What's more, FP Markets offers some of the best trading platforms. Traders can choose between 5 trading platforms and find the best that better suits their needs. These include MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, Iress, and TradingView.
In terms of spreads, FP Markets also offers real accounts for its traders to choose from including the standard and the raw account. The standard account features spreads from 1.0 pips for major currency pairs with no commission. On the other hand, the raw account has spread from as low as 0.0 pips for major currency pairs with a small commission of USD 3 per side per lot.
Lastly, FP Markets has regulations from several organisations in the market. The regulators include The FSCA, the CySEC, and the ASIC.
FXGT
FXGT allows its traders to open up to 2 demo accounts per account currency. The demo account will be credited with virtual funds and can be refilled when depleted. A point to note is that conditions for the demo account vary in comparison to the live trading account. Traders can access several global markets on FXGT. These include forex, cryptocurrencies, precious metals, energies, indices, and stocks. For trading platforms, traders can choose between MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5.
Further, FXGT gets traders covered with different account types. The accounts include the pro, the ECN, the mini, and the standard accounts. The standard account and the mini account both feature spreads from as low as 1.0 pips plus no commission required. The pro account features spread from as low as 0.5 pips for major currency pairs with no commission. Lastly, the ECN account features spread from as low as 0.0 pips with a small commission of up to $6 per round turn on all FX asset classes.
In terms of regulations, the broker has licenses and regulations from the FSCA in South Africa, the FSA in Seychelles, and the VFSC in Vanuatu.
How to Open a Forex Demo Account
On most broker sites, opening a demo account is very easy. Usually, a trader will only need to follow 3 steps and within several minutes a trader can start trading on the virtual account. The three steps include:
- Create an account by filling out a short registration form on a trader's preferred broker.
- Log into your dashboard and click Trade.
- Search the preferred market you want to trade and click new order to start trading on your virtual account.
Benefits of Using Demo Account
A demo Account has a lot of benefits for both advanced and novice traders. Here is the list of just a few benefits of the demo account:
- Risk-Free Trading - Demo accounts help to simulate real trading and if a trader makes a mistake it won't resort to any losses. That is because the demo account uses virtual funds and not real money. Risk-free trading enables traders to be creative and adjust their strategies over time.
- Develop and test strategies - Advanced traders can develop and test various strategies risk-free on the demo account. This enables traders to find the right strategies that best suit them.
- Practice - A novice trader can gain experience when using a demo account. The demo account will act as a stepping stone to help them prepare for the real thing. At the very least, they gain the experience of gaining and losing funds.
- Familiarising oneself with a trading platform - The demo account enables a trader to familiarise themselves with a trading platform before committing any funds. They can also learn how to use platform tools like trading indicators.
- Confidence and learning to control one's emotions - Emotions can cloud a trader's judgment and lead to huge losses. When using a demo account a trader can identify these emotions and find a way to fix them. The demo account will give new traders confidence to stake real money and know what to expect.
Nigerian traders can access the best free demo accounts on various broker sites. New traders benefit from demo accounts because it helps them gain experience while advanced traders can use the demo accounts to test new strategies. Demo accounts have a lot of benefits and should not be overlooked. The brokers on this list offer some of the best demo accounts to Nigerian traders. They also feature some of the tightest spreads in the market, a variety of trading instruments, and regulations from reputable organisations in addition to the free demo account.
Nonetheless, this is not the full-scale list and other reputable brokers did not make the list. A trader should not only pick a broker because they offer a free demo account. They should make sure the broker is regulated, has a variety of trading instruments, and has the best trading platform. Ultimately, it is upon every trader to choose the broker that best suits their needs.