Virtual money, no file

A demo rehearses the screens, never the money route (South Africa)

Practice accounts are usually judged on whether trading feels realistic. The more useful question here is different: which stops on the route from a bank account to a trading balance does a demo actually contain? The answer is none of them.

A demo account holds virtual money, so nothing arrives and nothing leaves. No verification is needed to open one, no payment provider is involved, no withdrawal exists to request. What it does hold is the same platform layout as a live account: a balance line, a margin line, an equity figure and an order ticket. That makes it an excellent rehearsal for reading a screen and a blank for everything about custody.

What is present on a demo, and what is missing

Sorting it this way settles most arguments about whether demo practice is worth the time.

Part of the route	On a demo	What that means
Identity file and documents	Absent	No ID or proof of address is asked for, so the check is never rehearsed
Payment in, and any conversion	Absent	The virtual balance appears without a provider or a currency crossing
The balance and margin lines	Present	Identical layout to a live account — this is the part worth practising
Withdrawal request and its rules	Absent	There is nothing to send anywhere, so the return path stays untested

So a demo answers questions of the form where do I read this figure, and cannot answer questions of the form where is my money right now. The second kind belongs to the deposit and withdrawal route.

The virtual balance is a dial, not a fact

A demo starts with $10,000 in virtual funds, and that figure can be reset or changed at any time from the Set Balance option in the account area or the mobile app. It is a setting, which is the opposite of how a live balance behaves: a live figure changes only when a payment lands, a payment leaves, or a trade closes.

Two habits follow from that. First, set the virtual balance to something close to the amount you would realistically fund, because margin figures scale with it and a $10,000 rehearsal teaches nothing about a much smaller account. Second, do not read a growing demo balance as evidence about anything: the number moved because trades closed, and nobody has to release it, convert it or send it anywhere.

The account types available on a demo mirror the live ones, so the platform layout being learned is the layout that will be there later. What differs is not the screen but what stands behind it. What an account choice fixes for good

Four things worth doing on a demo before any money exists

Each of these is about locating a figure, not about predicting a market.

Find the four money lines and learn which is which: balance, equity, used margin, free margin. Say out loud what each would be if every open trade closed this second.
Open one small position and watch the balance split: part stays free, part becomes held. Nothing was spent — that is the point to internalise before it happens with your own funds.
Hold a position past the daily rollover once, so the overnight charge appears on a record where it costs nothing to be surprised by.
Close everything and read the account history end to end. On a live account this same history is the record you would quote in a message to support.

An independent guide: it opens nothing, holds nothing and sees no balance. Platform layouts and available options are shown inside your Exness account area.

Do the paperwork while the practice is still free

Because a demo needs no verification, it is tempting to leave the identity file untouched until money is ready to move. That ordering costs time exactly when patience is shortest. Registration takes a few minutes, identity verification is usually approved within about 24 hours, and it asks for a government-issued photo ID together with a proof of residential address.

Running the two in parallel — practise on virtual money while the document check clears in the background — means the gate before money leaves is already open by the time it matters. What makes a document usable

Questions about what practice does and does not cover

Does opening a demo require any document?

No. Verification belongs to accounts that hold real money; a demo holds virtual funds and asks for none of it.

Can a demo balance be withdrawn?

No — there is nothing to send. The virtual figure is a setting, adjustable from Set Balance, not money held anywhere.

Which currency does a demo account count in?

Whichever was picked when it was created, the same as a live account. On a demo that choice costs nothing, which makes it a good place to see what a currency does to the figures.

Does practising here teach me anything about deposits?

Only indirectly. It teaches where the balance is read; it cannot teach how long a payment takes, what a provider charges, or what a conversion does.

Does a demo expire?

It can become inactive after a long stretch without use, and a new one can be opened at any time from the account area.

How many practice accounts can one profile hold?

Up to 100 MT4 and 100 MT5 demo accounts, 200 in total, so several currencies or layouts can sit side by side.

Should the practice balance match my real intentions?

It helps. Margin figures scale with the balance, so a rehearsal at ten times your real amount shows margin lines you will never see.

Is a good demo result a reason to skip the rest of the setup?

No. A result on virtual money says nothing about a document check, a payment route or a withdrawal, and results do not carry over.

Where the missing half is described

Deposits and withdrawals

The route a demo skips entirely, in both directions.

Follow the route

Opening an account

The documents, and what makes one come back for a second try.

See the file

First trade

The moment a single balance figure splits into free and held.

Watch the split

Virtual money, no document, no payment.

The platform layout is the same one a funded account uses, which is what makes it worth an hour. The button goes through a partner link to the official exness.com website.

Open a free demo at Exness