Open a demo trading account

The key difference between a demo account and a live account is that a demo comes with zero risk – it’s a trading simulator that enables you to buy and sell real markets with virtual funds. With a live account, on the other hand, you’re risking your own capital.

City Index’s demo account is a core element of our educational effort. A practice account is intended to familiarise you with the tools and features of City Index's trading platforms and to facilitate the testing of trading strategies in a risk-free environment using virtual funds.

Many traders use a demo to see how the markets work, or test drive our platform, before they upgrade to a live account that earns real profits and losses. Conditions in the practice account cannot always reasonably reflect all the market conditions that may affect pricing, execution, and margin requirements in a live trading environment. Margin and leverage settings by product and account may vary from time to time between your practice account and a live account due to live account settings changes imposed by City Index resulting from market volatility and other factors. Rollover/financing charges are not fully simulated in the demo environments. The pricing available in the demo environment is the same pricing available to City Index account holders. Pricing for managed accounts and accounts referred by an Introducing Broker may differ.

Results achieved on the City Index practice account are hypothetical and no representation is made that any account will or is likely to achieve actual profits or losses like those achieved in the practice account. Conditions in the practice account cannot always reasonably reflect all the market conditions that may affect pricing, execution, and margin requirements in a live trading environment. Margin and leverage settings by product and account may vary from time to time between your practice account and a live account due to live account settings changes imposed by City Index resulting from market volatility and other factors.

The pricing available in the demo environment is the same pricing available to City Index account holders. Pricing for managed accounts and accounts referred by an Introducing Broker may differ.

There are some other differences between demo and live accounts. For example, you won’t be able to access features such as Performance Analytics or SMART Signals with a demo.

Yes, your demo trading account comes with access to our full range of 80+ currency pairs, available as spot markets or via spread betting. You don’t need a separate forex demo account so you can buy and sell EUR/USD and GBP/USD alongside the UK 100, Barclays and gold.

We offer separate demo accounts for MT4 trading, so you can try out our leading MT4 package too. Open your MT4 demo here.

You won’t be able to access our exclusive Performance Analytics tool with your demo account. It is only available on our live accounts as it needs a bulk of live trades to analyse.

Yes, you can have a demo and a live account open at the same time. This is popular among traders, who use their demo account to trial new strategies and technical tools without putting any capital at risk.

We’d recommend using a demo account until you feel comfortable trading with real capital. Ideally, you’ll have a comprehensive plan and strategy in place too, so you know exactly what to do once you’ve added some funds.

City Index demo accounts expire in twelve weeks, but you can open another one if you wish to continue practising for longer.

Yes, you can open as many City Index demo accounts as you like – although you’ll need a different email address for each one. You can also apply for another demo account once your current one has expired, if you want to trade risk free for a longer period.