DukaScopy Trading Account: PROs & CONs
DukaScopy Trading Account: PROs & CONs : https://www.dukascopy.com/land/trading/eu/forex/?lang=en&ibref=20544
I'll be reviewing some of the basic and important things that you need to know as a beginner trader.
So DukasCopy is a Swiss-based broker. They are well known for having very good historical data, huge amounts of historical data. In fact, the app where we pull our historical data actually comes from DukasCopy.
I want to cover firstly how easy is it to open a Demo account in DukasCopy,
well it's very easy. So the first thing you do, you're going to go to their website which is dukascopy.com, and right at the top here, Open Demo FX
Account.
And then we're just going to put in some personal details.
Obviously, as you can see, I have registered with them before, that's why I can just auto-fill all of these details. Then here at the bottom, once you've
filled in your details, it'll ask you which type of Demo account you want so we're going to go with the Meta Trader 4.
We're not going to use the default Demo account settings.
And here you can choose if you want to subscribe to the Forex Overview or not, I'm gonna unselect that then we go to the next step. Here is where we get to choose our base currency which will be US dollars and then the balance.
You can choose everything from 1,000 down to 1,000,000 at different increments.
For the purposes of this video, we're gonna go with $10,000 and then we just click on Get Demo Account. Really it's as simple as that. Once
you've done that, it'll say - Success!
And then, of course, below that is a link to download the Meta Trader 4 platform. So as you can see, it's very quick and easy to set up a Demo account in DukasCopy.
There are a few things to take note of:
The first is that you can open as many Demo accounts as you want, there's no limit on that, you can download as many platforms as you want.
However, there is a time limit on the Demo accounts and that is 14 days. Now, the problem with that is that when we create Expert Advisors, we create them based on historical data that sometimes goes back a few years.
On the bigger time frames, in the 1 month, for example, it goes back sometimes about 15 years.
Now, because those EAs are based on so much historical data, the strategies generated are based on certain market conditions. Now, market conditions change constantly.
So some EAs will work exceptionally well in current market conditions
and some won't. But when market conditions change, those EAs that were performing well may not perform as well, and the ones that weren't performing well may start performing.
This could take some time. And 2 weeks, based on my experience, is not enough. Another thing that's very important to note when using DukasCopy as your broker for Demo accounts is the leverage.
I don't want to go into too much detail on leverage but effectively what leverage means is the money that you borrow from the broker
to open your trades.
So if your leverage is 1:100, which it is in DukasCopy and it's limited to that, it's 1:100 on most of the currency pairs.
Basically, what that means is that for every $1 that you put into a trade, the broker will put in 99. You cannot change that and that's the maximum that they will offer you.
For a beginner trader that's enough.
I personally wouldn't advise trading on anything more than a leverage of
1:100 because while it is very good when you're profitable and you're winning trades, unfortunately, the converse is true as well.
So if your leverage is too high, you'll run out of money quite quickly if the market or your trades go against you. Because, again, for every $1 that you've put in, the broker will put in 99.
But unfortunately for every $1 that you lose, you'll effectively be losing another 99. So that's very important to note. Another thing is that you cannot log into your account as a Demo user.
So you cannot change anything, you cannot add money to your account if
trades start going against you. You effectively have to open another account if you run out of money or start running out of money in your Demo
account.
And lastly, you cannot choose what type of account you want as a Demo account.
Now, there are a number of different accounts - there's ECN Accounts, there's Standard Accounts, there's ECN Zero Accounts, there's Razor Accounts, different brokers call them different things.
Across most of them though, the Standard Account means that you'll pay no or very small commission but you'll pay a larger spread. But the spread is the difference between the bid price and the ask price and that's really where most of the brokers make their money.
On an ECN Account which is geared more towards scalpers and day traders, you can trade in the EC account where your spread is very small
but then you pay a commission as well.
So you have to just think about which account would work best for you.
Personally, I normally work with a Standard Account.
I'll be reviewing some of the basic and important things that you need to know as a beginner trader.
So DukasCopy is a Swiss-based broker. They are well known for having very good historical data, huge amounts of historical data. In fact, the app where we pull our historical data actually comes from DukasCopy.
I want to cover firstly how easy is it to open a Demo account in DukasCopy,
well it's very easy. So the first thing you do, you're going to go to their website which is dukascopy.com, and right at the top here, Open Demo FX
Account.
And then we're just going to put in some personal details.
Obviously, as you can see, I have registered with them before, that's why I can just auto-fill all of these details. Then here at the bottom, once you've
filled in your details, it'll ask you which type of Demo account you want so we're going to go with the Meta Trader 4.
We're not going to use the default Demo account settings.
And here you can choose if you want to subscribe to the Forex Overview or not, I'm gonna unselect that then we go to the next step. Here is where we get to choose our base currency which will be US dollars and then the balance.
You can choose everything from 1,000 down to 1,000,000 at different increments.
For the purposes of this video, we're gonna go with $10,000 and then we just click on Get Demo Account. Really it's as simple as that. Once
you've done that, it'll say - Success!
And then, of course, below that is a link to download the Meta Trader 4 platform. So as you can see, it's very quick and easy to set up a Demo account in DukasCopy.
There are a few things to take note of:
The first is that you can open as many Demo accounts as you want, there's no limit on that, you can download as many platforms as you want.
However, there is a time limit on the Demo accounts and that is 14 days. Now, the problem with that is that when we create Expert Advisors, we create them based on historical data that sometimes goes back a few years.
On the bigger time frames, in the 1 month, for example, it goes back sometimes about 15 years.
Now, because those EAs are based on so much historical data, the strategies generated are based on certain market conditions. Now, market conditions change constantly.
So some EAs will work exceptionally well in current market conditions
and some won't. But when market conditions change, those EAs that were performing well may not perform as well, and the ones that weren't performing well may start performing.
This could take some time. And 2 weeks, based on my experience, is not enough. Another thing that's very important to note when using DukasCopy as your broker for Demo accounts is the leverage.
I don't want to go into too much detail on leverage but effectively what leverage means is the money that you borrow from the broker
to open your trades.
So if your leverage is 1:100, which it is in DukasCopy and it's limited to that, it's 1:100 on most of the currency pairs.
Basically, what that means is that for every $1 that you put into a trade, the broker will put in 99. You cannot change that and that's the maximum that they will offer you.
For a beginner trader that's enough.
I personally wouldn't advise trading on anything more than a leverage of
1:100 because while it is very good when you're profitable and you're winning trades, unfortunately, the converse is true as well.
So if your leverage is too high, you'll run out of money quite quickly if the market or your trades go against you. Because, again, for every $1 that you've put in, the broker will put in 99.
But unfortunately for every $1 that you lose, you'll effectively be losing another 99. So that's very important to note. Another thing is that you cannot log into your account as a Demo user.
So you cannot change anything, you cannot add money to your account if
trades start going against you. You effectively have to open another account if you run out of money or start running out of money in your Demo
account.
And lastly, you cannot choose what type of account you want as a Demo account.
Now, there are a number of different accounts - there's ECN Accounts, there's Standard Accounts, there's ECN Zero Accounts, there's Razor Accounts, different brokers call them different things.
Across most of them though, the Standard Account means that you'll pay no or very small commission but you'll pay a larger spread. But the spread is the difference between the bid price and the ask price and that's really where most of the brokers make their money.
On an ECN Account which is geared more towards scalpers and day traders, you can trade in the EC account where your spread is very small
but then you pay a commission as well.
So you have to just think about which account would work best for you.
Personally, I normally work with a Standard Account.
