A binary options broker that was established in 2012, ZoomTrader has been in the competitive binary options industry for several years. They offer a decent number of options contract types but they are most notable for their high deposit bonus which can go up to as high as 100%. The returns which they offer are also quite generous and give traders a chance to earn as high as 83% yield on their investments.

They offer their traders a versatile and robust trading platform. The platform is also extremely user-friendly requiring virtually no training at all to operate it. Nevertheless, for beginner traders who might feel uncomfortable practicing their trading skills with real money, ZoomTrader has also provided this group of traders with the facility of a demo account. With the demo account, traders are given a sum of “virtual cash” with they can then use to trade the markets on a virtual basis. The great thing about the demo account is the fact that there is no time limitation on it. In fact, you can use it for as long as you want.

In order to access the demo account facility, you have to get in touch with your account manager and request to be given access. However, there is one restriction on the demo account which traders have to be aware off. It is ZoomTrader’s policy to only give access to the demo account after they have made a deposit into their trading account. This is done in order to prevent “time wasters” from taking up valuable computing resources on ZoomTraders’ servers.

Apart from beginner traders, even experienced traders will find the demo account facility useful as they can use it to test their trading strategies to evaluate their effectiveness without having to risk real money on the ZoomTrader trading platform.

Tradologic Solutions Limited – ZoomTrader’s Trading Platform Provider

The trading platform which ZoomTrader has provided their traders with is the Tradologic powered trading platform. As one of the world’s leading provider’s of binary options trading solutions, the platform’s developer is in a unique position to enable them to refine their product according to current market trends and needs. Hence, it is not surprising that Tradologic has developed a world-class reputation of providing trading solutions which are simple and user-friendly.

Tradologic’s platform codenamed “BINRIX”, has a proven track record for reliability and was developed according to the guidelines issued by various financial regulatory bodies such as the Cyprus Securiites Exchange Commission (CySEC), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The trading platform features accurate real-time prices as it uses price feeds and news feeds provided by Thomson Reuters. Because of the simplistic nature of the trading platform, the platform is fast and responsive since it is not resource-heavy.

It is of little wonder why binary options brokers such as ZoomTrader have decided to opt for the Tradologic based trading platform. With it, traders at ZoomTrader can trade in several different types of binary options contracts such as Digital Options, 60 Seconds Options, Touch Options and Range Options. Not only can they trade with all the above-mentioned types of options contracts, they also have different types of underlying assets to select from the 4 major assets cases in the financial markets covered by ZoomTrader.

• Digital Options

This is the basic type of binary options and is the simplest type to trade. Because of its simplicity, it is popular among traders especially those who are new to trading binary options. With digital options, trades just have to decide if the current market price will end up higher or lower than the strike price upon expiration of the options contract. If they feel that the price will be higher by the time the options expire, they simply purchase a CALL option. On the other hand, if they think the price will end up lower by the time the option expire, they will purchase a PUT option.

• Touch Options

Touch options are a great way to trade an asset which is extremely volatile. With this type of options, you have to decide if the current price will “touch” the strike price before the expiration of the option contract. If the price manages to touch the strike price before the option expires, you will close in the money.

• Range Options

Similar to the way Touch options works, Range options requires you to predict if the expiration price will remain inside or outside a predetermined range. If you feel that the price will be inside the predetermined price range, then you simply click “IN”. If, however, you feel that the price will end up outside the price range then you click “OUT”. Usually, range options are traded when the price of the asset is neither trending upwards or downwards. Instead, prices remain relatively stable and are fluctuating with a price range.

• 60 Second Options

Seconds options are essentially a CALL/PUT option with one big crucial difference. The option has an expiration time of just 60 seconds. This type of option is ideal for those who want a quick turnaround for their investments.

Risk Management Features

Apart from having several different ways to trade the markets with the Tradologic powered trading platform, it also has a couple of unique tools which you can use to manage your trading risks with.

• Rollover Feature

The rollover feature lets you extend the expiration time of your soon to be expired options contracts for a small premium. For example, your current option contract is out of the money and is about to expire shortly. However, you feel that prices will rebind if given enough time to run its course. Therefore to give you that little extra time, you simply roll over your option expiration time to the next cycle.

• Take Profit Feature

This particular feature lets you close an option contract before its designated time. You use this feature when you want to safeguard your profit rather than risk losing it upon expiration of the options contract.

In short, the Tradologic powered trading platform is a well-rounded trading platform with all the trading features that you need for a successful trading transaction. So how do you get to try the trading platform without having to risk your money? Well, this is where the demo account provided by ZoomTrader comes in useful.

What is the Demo Account?

A demo account is essentially a normal trading account except that no real money is transacted with it. Basically, you will be allocated a sum of virtual cash with the demo account which you will use to invest in the markets. The prices used are the real live trading prices and the returns which you will receive are what you would expect from real live trading. In short, a demo account provides you with simulated trading scenarios.

Besides, from letting you get a feel of how live trading is like with the trading platform, the demo account give traders the opportunity to test their trading strategies and see how effective they are without having to risk their own money. It also gives you an opportunity to practice so you can develop your trading skills. And once you are familiar with how the platform works and is confident with your trading abilities, you can start trading live and earn real money using an actual trading account.

The Importance of Demo Testing

Because binary options trading is considered a relatively new way of trading the financial markets, demo account testing is not prevalent among binary options brokers as well as traders. Furthermore, many traders feel that binary options are easy to trade with and testing the markets with a demo account is not necessary. However, for the more established markets such as the spot forex market, demo testing is considered essential if you ever want to be successful with your online trading career. So while making money with binary options is considered easier than spot forex, it is still a risky venture and as such it is important that you make the effort to understand and learn all the different aspects of binary options trading before you actually start risking your hard earned money.

Misconceptions about Demo Trading

Many novice traders make the mistake of ignoring the importance of the demo trading account. They think because binary options are easy to trade, no practice is required. So instead of spending the time to practice with a demo account, they should just proceed straight to live trading and start making real money. But they often fail to realize that if their trading strategy doesn’t work, they will end up losing real money. Impatience is a trait which has no place in the online financial trading world. In fact, research has shown that more than three quarters of online traders make more than 80 wrong trading decisions due to their inexperience and impatience.

So it is important that before you start live trading, you should practice as much as you can with the demo account facility provided by ZoomTrader. View it as an important tool which will further enhance your trading skill rather than a game. Later you will realize that all the mistakes that you have made through demo trading actually gives you a better insight into how the market behaves and most importantly it will preserve your investment capital for real live action.

Will the Demo Account give you enough Practice?

As mentioned earlier, the demo account facility is not a common feature among most binary options brokers today. And for those who do provide a demo account, the time which traders can access them is limited to 3 to 5 days. Unlike ZoomTrader, the demo account which this broker has provided has no expiration on it. In fact, you can use it for as long as you want, whenever you want. This is because ZoomTrader realize that learning is a continuous process and you can never get enough practice. So take full advantage of the unlimited demo account facility provided by ZoomTrader to fine-tune your trading skills.

Conclusion

So from what we can observe, a demo account is not just for getting a feel of the broker’s trading platform but actually performs many more functions than many traders may have originally thought. For example, with demo trading, you get to learn the mistakes that you make and from them you have the chance to correct those mistakes without suffering a financial loss. It also allows you to develop new trading strategies and fine tune them until they work seamlessly. Finally, it helps to develop your trading personality so you don’t get impatient and make rash trading decisions which you will regret later. So when we take into consideration what we have learned about a demo account, then we will begin to realize why the unlimited demo account facility provided by ZoomTrader is such a big deal.

References/Further Reading:

1. Portfolio Choice and Trading in a Large 401(k) Plan (Agnew, Julie; Balduzzi, Pierluigi; Sundén, Annika)
2. The Interim Trading Skills of Institutional Investors (ANDY PUCKETT, XUEMIN (STERLING) YAN)
3. Rewarding Trading Skills Without Inducing Gambling  (Igor Makarov, Guillaume Plantin)
4. Rewarding Trading Skills without Inducing Gambling (IGOR MAKAROV, GUILLAUME PLANTIN)
5. Investor Overconfidence and Trading Volume (Meir Statman, Steven Thorley, Keith Vorkink)
6. Trading Skills for Sales Assistants (Dench, S.)
7. Changing skill needs: what makes people employable? (Sally Dench)
8. Trading in strategic resources: Necessary conditions, transaction cost problems, and choice of exchange structure (Tailan Chi)
9. Which Trades Move Asset Prices? An Analysis of Futures Trading Data (Jangkoo Kang & Doojin Ryu)
10.  Trading partner trust in electronic commerce participation (Pauline Ratnasingham, Kuldeep Kumar)
11. The rate at which a simple market converges to efficiency as the number of traders increases: An asymptotic result for optimal trading mechanisms  (Thomas A. Gresik, Mark A. Satterthwaite)
12. Aggressiveness and survival of overconfident traders  (Alexandros V. Benos)
13. Momentum traders in the housing market: survey evidence and a search model (Monika Piazzesi, Martin Schneider)
14. A New Architecture of Online Trading Platform Based on Cloud Computing (Xiujuan Zhang ; Guoqing Dong)
15. Customer Trading in the Foreign Exchange Market : Empirical Evidence from an Internet Trading Platform (Lechner, Sandra; Nolte, Ingmar)
16. Trading platform, market volatility and pricing efficiency in the floor-traded and E-mini index futures markets  (Huimin Chunga, Her-Jiun Sheub, Shufang Hsu)
17. An AHP-DEA-based vendor selection approach for an online trading platform (Yara Aji, Moncer Hariga)
18. A Web-based financial trading system ( Ming Fan ; J. Stallaert ; A.B. Whinston)
19. Review of US ESCO industry market trends: an empirical analysis of project data (Charles A Goldman, Nicole C Hopper, Julie G Osborn)
20. Recombinant protein therapeutics—success rates, market trends and values to 2010  (Alex K Pavlou1 & Janice M Reichert)