Demo vs Live Accounts Slippage and Spreads

[bella2175]

Hi all,

Is it safe to assume that all brokers who have a demo account, the demo account matches the live account's slippage and spreads? When asking some of them directly, they said yes ... but want to get the take from the fellow community here

Thank you!

 

[Enivid]

No, the spreads and, especially, slippage will not necessarily match between demo and live accounts of the same broker. I would say that sometimes the spreads do match, but demo accounts lack spread widening ubiquitous during news releases and NY close time. Slippage is nearly always absent in demo accounts at all.

 

[TJ Forex]

I have never seen a broker where the demo and real accounts have exactly the same slippage and spreads. There are always discrepancies, it is a reason why you can sometimes see a strategy work on a demo account, but then fail on alive account.

 

[Dictorsto]

I also think that there might be some differences in spreads and especially slippage between demo and live account. This is also one of the main differences between demo and live trading, which surprise many new and inexperienced traders. But everything else should be more or less the same.

 

[J_C_Anderson]

Demo and real account execution could differ from broker to broker. This is one of the reasons why you should use only your broker`s historical data for backtesting (the most popular backtesting tool, the Forex Tester, allows to do so). That data would be recorded the way your broker does it - it is very important to get reliable results.

Another point is that you check the Terms and Conditions placed on the broker`s website.

 

[Ary Barroso]

Slippage is nearly always absent in demo accounts at all.

It’s true; I have also similar experience on it! But as I see; transparent brokers are very careful on technical errors.

 

[37riched]

I have never seen a broker where the demo and real accounts have exactly the same slippage and spreads. There are always discrepancies, it is a reason why you can sometimes see a strategy work on a demo account, but then fail on alive account.

I agree with this. Slippage is almost always absent in all demo accounts and the spread is never exactly the same in demo accounts. That is why you must try a strategy several times on demo before being sure it can work in a real account. To play safe, you can try mini account for the real experience at lower risk

 

[Zack King]

Hi all,

Is it safe to assume that all brokers who have a demo account, the demo account matches the live account's slippage and spreads? When asking some of them directly, they said yes ... but want to get the take from the fellow community here

Thank you!

Slippage on demo accounts does not usually occur, in my experience, but as discussed above, demos should reflect the live market of the live account for that broker, and I actually tested this with Hugo's Way and never had issues with either demo or live. One of my brokers of choice right now.