Tickmill Demo Account: Free Practice on MT4, MT5 and Tickmill Trader

A Tickmill demo account lets you trade CFDs with virtual money while prices move as they do in the live market. Tickmill calls it a risk-free entry to trading. It costs nothing, and you don't need to deposit or even be a client to request one from the demo page on its website.

One detail on that page is easy to miss. A demo opened through the public form won't appear in your Client Area, whether you already have a profile or create one later. If you want your demo and live accounts in one place, open the demo from inside the Client Area or through the Tickmill Trader platform instead.

Two ways to open a demo

1. Decide which route suits you from the table above.
2. For the website form, enter your name, email and phone in Latin characters.
3. In the Client Area, log in and add a demo trading account.
4. Choose the platform, account type, currency, leverage and virtual balance offered.
5. Note the login, password and server sent to you.
6. Install the platform and log in to the demo server.

Tickmill doesn't state on the page we read how long a demo stays active or what balance options it offers, and we won't guess. The setup screen shows the choices available, and support can confirm the expiry rule for your platform.

Make the demo match real life

A demo teaches good habits only if it resembles the account you will fund. Pick the account type you plan to trade, since Classic and Raw price the same trade very differently. Choose a virtual balance close to your intended deposit. Set leverage where you will keep it live, not at the maximum.

What to practise

• Order entry: market, limit and stop orders, each with a stop loss.
• Position sizing from a fixed percentage of the balance.
• Where commission appears on a Raw account statement.
• How swaps change the result of a trade held overnight.
• Margin level, and how close a trade takes you to 100%.
• Your expert advisor, if you plan to automate.

Tickmill's margin call is at 100% and stop out at 50%. A demo is the place to see those levels in action without paying for the lesson. Open a deliberately oversized trade once, watch the margin level fall, and note how few pips it takes.

Dynamic leverage on demo

Tickmill applies dynamic leverage on MT5 and Tickmill Trader across all account types, demo included. Leverage on forex and gold is 1:1000 for the first two lots of forex, or one lot of gold, then drops to 1:500, 1:100 and finally 1:10 as the position grows. MT4 uses static leverage with a maximum of 1:500.

An MT5 demo shows you how margin steps up as you add to a position, something a static-leverage platform won't. The Tickmill leverage guide has the full tier table.

What a demo can't show you

Demo prices are real, but your reactions aren't. Nobody freezes over a losing trade when the money is imaginary. Greed and fear arrive with the first live position, and they change how people follow a plan.

Fills are kinder too. Tickmill uses market execution, and a live order in a fast market can be filled a little away from the quoted price. A scalping system that looks profitable on demo should be tested with small live trades before you trust it.

A simple four-week routine

1. Week one: learn the platform until placing and closing orders is automatic.
2. In week two, trade one instrument only, risking 1% per trade.
3. During week three, keep a journal with the reason, stop, target and result of every trade.
4. Use week four to count rule breaks and compare your average win with your average loss.

Thirty or more journaled trades give you something to judge. Ten trades don't, because luck dominates a small sample.

After the demo

Tickmill offers a middle step that most brokers don't. The $30 Welcome Account is live money you didn't deposit, which lets you feel real execution before funding. It comes with conditions, described in our Welcome Account guide.

When you do fund, start with the minimum of 100 and the smallest trade size. Our Tickmill minimum deposit guide explains why $200 gives more room, and the account types guide helps you pick between Classic and Raw.

Mistakes that waste a demo

Huge virtual balances are the first. A $50,000 demo makes a $500 loss feel like nothing, and that indifference follows you to a $200 live account where the same trade would be fatal. Choose the smallest balance on offer that resembles your real plans.

A second mistake is to ignore costs. On a Raw demo, open the account history and find the commission column. With Classic, compare your entry price with the chart price and see the spread you paid. Costs are invisible until you look for them, and a month of looking builds the habit.

Third, people trade ten markets at once. Tickmill offers 62 currency pairs and several other asset classes, and a demo makes it free to dabble in all of them. Each market has its own hours and typical range. Learn one pair properly before adding a second.

Finally, don't stop at a handful of trades. Five winners prove nothing, since chance produces streaks that short all the time. Judge a method on thirty to fifty trades across calm and busy sessions, and keep the journal that makes such a judgement possible.

Tickmill's education pages, with webinars, video tutorials and a blog, pair well with a demo. Watch one lesson, then try the idea on the practice account the same day.

Frequently asked

Related reading

• Tickmill account opening
• Tickmill Welcome Account
• Tickmill platforms
• Tickmill leverage
• Our full Tickmill review