Demo accounts: what they teach and where they lie
What you learn in 3 minutesA demo account teaches the platform and the arithmetic honestly. On USD/INR around 83.2500, one pip on one standard lot is ₹10, so a 20-pip move is ₹200. What a demo cannot teach is how fills behave in a fast market, and how losing real money feels.
20 pips on one standard lot: ₹200 before costs
| Step | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Instrument | USD/INR | the pair used in this example |
| Price at entry | 83.2500 | a round number for easy arithmetic |
| Lot size | 1 standard lot | 100,000 units of the base currency |
| Pip size | 0.0001 | the fourth decimal place for USD/INR |
| Value of one pip | ₹10 | 100,000 × 0.0001 = 10 |
| Move | 20 pips | from 83.2500 to 83.4500 |
| Gross result | ₹200 | 20 × ₹10 = ₹200 |
| Demo fill | 83.4500 | the demo fills at the exact price shown |
| Live fill | 83.4500 | the live fill may differ by slippage |
The broker may round the fill, charge a spread, commission or swap on top. These vary between brokers, so check the contract specification before trading.
The mistake people make here
The common mistake is to treat a demo fill as a promise. In a fast market, a live order may fill at a worse price than the one on screen. That difference is slippage. A demo may also show a requote, where the broker asks for a new price before accepting the order. To prepare, place a few small live trades and compare the fill with the price you saw. Keep a note of the difference in pips and in rupees. Do not assume the demo result will repeat.Check yourself
On one standard lot of USD/INR, what is the value of 15 pips in rupees?
One pip is ₹10, so 15 pips is 15 × ₹10 = ₹150.
If a live order fills 3 pips worse than the demo price on one standard lot, how much extra does that cost in rupees?
3 pips × ₹10 = ₹30. The live fill costs ₹30 more than the demo fill.