Best Demo Stock Trading Account

A demo account for trading stocks works like a trading simulator on which you can practice stock trading without risking your own money. Despite the fact, that you can open a demo account for stock trading basically with any broker that features stocks on its platform, it is advised to pick a company with which you might trade in the future. The reason being, once you get used to a platform on a demo, it is easier to switch to a real account within the same trading platform. There are a couple of important broker’s characteristics on which a trader who is looking for the best demo stock trading account should focus. Let’s review them:

Regulation - better safe than sorry

If you do not want to fall to a scam broker, regulation should be the no. 1 priority. A regulatory body oversees all actives that a regulated broker does and should there be any issue, you can always report the broker to the given regulator which will analyse and chase the broker to find out if they haven’t done any wrongdoing against you. The most reputable regulatory authorities are the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

Available stocks

Secondly, verify that a broker features stocks that you want to trade. Each trader has different needs and while one might be okay with a few dozens of shares, another trader would be disappointed with such limited offer. For that reason, before you register with any company, even with just a demo, make sure that you are going to find your stocks on the broker’s platform.

Fees - as low as possible
The more you have to pay on fees, the more your stocks have to rise or decline (depending on if you also short stocks). There are huge differences in what fees brokers charge so don’t take this aspect lightly. Fees can often make or break your success.

In this guide, we have selected some of the best brokers that feature a demo stock trading account, here is their breakdown:

Regulation – Brokers that support Demo Stock Trading

eToro (Read a review) –

AvaTrade (Read a review) –

  • AVA Trade EU Ltd is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, License number: C53877 – http://registers.centralbank.ie/FirmDataPage.aspx?firmReferenceNumber=C53877
  • Ava Capital Markets Australia Pty Ltd is regulated by the ASIC (No.406684) –
  • Ava Capital Markets Pty is regulated by the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA No.45984). – https://www.fsca.co.za/Fais/Search_FSP.htm
  • Ava Trade Japan K.K. is licensed and regulated in Japan by the Financial Services Agency (License No.: 1662), the Financial Futures Association of Japan (License No.: 1574).
  • Ava Trade Middle East Ltd is regulated by the Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM) Financial Regulatory Services Authority (FRSA) (No.190018).

IQ Option (Read a review) –

Stocks that you can trade on a demo or real account

Go to broker
81% of retail clients lose money

eToro

eToro supports trading stocks from 17 stock exchanges, these include US, EU and Asian stocks. Etoro supports trading CFDs on stocks as well as purchasing real underlying assets (stocks).

European stocks (Including: Aston Martin, EasyJet, Avast, Barclays, Admiral Group)
American stocks (Including: Apple, Facebook, Tesla, Netflix, Beyond Meat)
Asian stocks (Including: Xiaomi Corp, Bank of China, Zijin Mining, Tencent)
= In total 2500 stocks (Real underlying assets as well as CFDs on stocks)
Go to broker
71% of retail clients lose money

AvaTrade

AvaTrade supports speculation on stocks from the USA, Canada, Europe as well as Asia.

European stocks (Including: Orange, Volkswagen, RWE, Bayer)
American stocks (Including: Tesla, Netflix, Boeing, Virgin Galactic, Shopify, Amazon, IBM)
Canadian stocks (Including: Canopy Growth, Canopy weed, Canada railway, Aurora Cannabis)
Asian stocks (Including: China life, China Southern Air, Tencent music)
= In total 626 stocks (CFDs)
Go to broker
83% of retail clients lose money

IQ Option

IQ Option features US, European and Canadian stocks. They divide stocks according to the following sectors: Information technology, consumer discretionary, health care, industrials, consumer staples, financials, energy, telecommunication services, utilities, materials and real estate.

US stocks (Including: Tesla, Apple, Beyond meat, Netflix, PayPal, IBM, easyJet)
Canadian stocks (Including: Canopy Growth Corp.)
European stocks (Including: Tesco, L'Oréal, Heineken, Barclays, Vodafone)
= In total 170 stocks (CFDs)

Fees that these companies charge

Depending on if you buy a real stock and are the owner of the underlying assets (offered for instance by eToro) or you trade CFDs on stocks (offered for instance by eToro, AvaTrade and IQ Option), the fees will vary.

eToro Fees on stocks (real underlying assets)

For accounts under CySec/FCA regulation, zero commission applies to most stocks available on the eToro platform. For accounts under ASIC regulation, zero commission applies to all US stocks available on the eToro platform.

Example Trade:

Initial Investment: 1,000 USD Commission: NO
Apple Stock (AAPL) Ask Rate: 250 USD Overnight Fees: NO
Position: Open 4 Units (AAPL BUY) Total Fees: 0 USD

*Withdrawals incur a low fee of $5 and FX rates apply to non-USD deposits and withdrawals.

Stock demo trading via CFDs

If you want to trade stocks with leverage, you can go for trading CFDs on stocks. One of the main fees you are going to encounter when trading CFD on stocks is the spread fee, which is basically the difference between ask and bid price (example). All brokers that we have tested today state that the spread is floating, which means the spreads change in real-time. To give you some idea what spreads they charge, here is a breakdown of spreads that IQ Option, AvaTrade and eToro charge today on popular shares (when trading with leverage).

Stock (CFD) IQ Option spreads AvaTrade spreads Etoro spreads
Goldman Sachs 0.14 0.25 0.23
Netflix 0.12 0.34 0.2
Amazon 0.614 0.2 0.25
Mastercard 0.21 0.17 0.15
Shopify 0.72 0.6 0.35
Coca Cola 0.17 0.3 0.22

Data about spreads were taken from the trading platforms of the given brokers on the 14th of February 2022 (17:21 GMT+1), for which they are accurate.



Michael

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