Do I need to start with real money?

No, and you shouldn't. The demo account is free, requires no deposit and no KYC, and uses the same platform, instruments, and order flow as live trading. Spend 20–30 hours on the demo over a few weeks, placing trades with the same stop-loss discipline you'd use live. Real money exposes discipline gaps the demo masks — fix the rules first, then graduate.

What's a reasonable trade size for a beginner?

Smaller than feels exciting. Risk 0.5–1% of the account per trade in the first months — on a $1,000 account that's $5–$10 of maximum loss per trade. If that sounds trivially small, that's the point — you're optimising for surviving the inevitable losing streaks while you learn what works, not for impressive single-trade returns.

Should I set stop-loss every time?

Yes. Without exception. The trades you remember are the ones with sudden moves against you — stop-loss caps how bad those become. Skipping it on a 'sure thing' is precisely how new traders end up holding 20% losses hoping for recovery. The cost of a stop-loss that gets hit is small; the cost of one missed when you needed it is the whole position.

How long should I hold a trade?

As long as the original reason for the trade is still valid — not longer. If you opened it as an intraday trade on a momentum idea, close it intraday whether you're up or down; don't convert it into a multi-day hold because the original idea didn't work. Time horizon discipline is part of the strategy; switching it mid-trade is how losing trades grow into account problems.

What's the order ticket actually doing when I click confirm?

It sends a market order (instant fill at quoted price) or pending order (waits at your specified limit or stop level) to Libertex's order management system. Market orders fill immediately at the displayed bid (if selling) or ask (if buying); the spread between those is paid implicitly. The position then appears in your open-positions panel, mark-to-market updates continuously, and any attached stop-loss / take-profit sit on the broker's order book until triggered or cancelled.

Can I modify stop-loss after the trade is open?

Yes — the position panel lets you adjust stop-loss and take-profit while the trade is live. Useful for trailing a stop behind a winning position to lock in gains. Counter-productive when used to widen the stop on a losing trade because it's 'almost there' — that's exactly the pattern that turns small losses into large ones. The discipline rule: move stops in the direction of profit only, never against.

What if my trade is profitable — should I just hold it longer?

Depends on whether the original plan is still intact. If you opened the trade with a clear take-profit level and price reached it, close. If price kept going, you missed extra profit — that's not a mistake, that's discipline working. Letting winners run is a strategy too, but it requires defined trailing-stop rules set before the trade, not improvised once you're up. Improvised exits usually return the profit and then some.

How to trade

How to trade on Libertex

An action-oriented walkthrough — what you actually click, in what order, with what numbers — from opening the platform to closing your first trade. Workflow only; whether to take a specific trade is your call, not this page's.

Step-by-step workflowSame flow on web, iOS, AndroidStop-loss on every trade

Practice on the demo See the steps ↓

Workflow

Seven steps to your first trade

Standard CFD trade workflow on Libertex. The first six steps you do before clicking confirm; the seventh is what happens while the position is live. Practice the whole sequence on the demo until each step feels automatic — then a live trade becomes a smaller cognitive leap.

Open the platform and log in
Seconds
Web terminal, iOS, or Android — same account, same instruments, same order ticket. The watchlist syncs across devices, so the instruments you've pinned on web appear on mobile too.
Pick one instrument
1–2 minutes
From the instrument browser, pin one to your watchlist. New traders do well to start with a single liquid market (EUR/USD, gold, S&P 500) instead of jumping between many. Fewer variables, faster learning of what works.
Read the chart before opening the ticket
5–15 minutes
What's the trend on the timeframe you're trading? Where are recent highs and lows? Any scheduled news (rate decisions, earnings) within your holding period that could move the price sharply? Decide direction and the level where you'd exit if wrong — that's your stop-loss before any order is placed.
Open the order ticket
Seconds
Click buy or sell on the instrument. The ticket appears with editable fields: position size, multiplier, take-profit, stop-loss. Costs (spread, commission, overnight rate if applicable) are displayed live as you change the size and multiplier — read them before confirming.
Set stop-loss based on your max loss per trade
1–2 minutes
Work backwards: if you'll risk 1% of a $1,000 account ($10), and the stop is 20 pips on a forex pair where each pip costs $0.50 per micro-lot, your position is 1 micro-lot. The stop dictates the size, not the other way around. Setting stop-loss is non-negotiable on Libertex — orders without it can move further against you than intended.
Confirm and let it execute
Seconds
Market orders fill instantly at the quoted price; limit orders wait for your specified price. The position appears in the open-positions panel with live mark-to-market P&L. Don't touch the stop or target in the first minutes — emotional adjustment is how traders abandon their plan.
Monitor and close
Trade duration
Stop-loss and take-profit close the trade automatically. You can also close manually from the position panel — handy if news changes the picture mid-trade. After close, write a short note: did the trade follow your plan? Pattern recognition emerges only over many trades reviewed honestly.

Pre-trade checklist

Read this before clicking confirm

Five questions to answer for every trade — yours or anyone else's. The traders who survive year after year answer them before opening the order ticket, not after. The traders who blow up answer some of them later, usually after the trade has gone wrong.

Why this trade, in one sentence: If you can't summarise the idea in a single sentence ('EUR/USD breaking out of two-week range, target prior high'), it isn't a trade yet — it's a hunch. Hunches don't accumulate into edge.
Exit if wrong (stop-loss level): A specific price, not a feeling. Distance from entry should reflect instrument volatility — too tight and normal noise stops you out, too wide and the position size has to shrink to compensate.
Maximum loss in account currency: Stop distance × position size × pip value. Cap it at 0.5–1% of the account on early trades. If the resulting position size feels too small to bother with, the account is too small for the stop you chose — pick a different instrument or a smaller stop.
Holding period and overnight risk: Day trade out by end-of-session, or hold overnight and pay financing? Overnight charges are small per night but accumulate over multi-day swings. Factor them into the expected outcome before opening.
Scheduled news during the trade: Rate decisions, earnings, inventory reports, payrolls — anything on the economic calendar that could move your instrument while you're in it. Either avoid the news window or widen the stop (and reduce size) accordingly.

Treat this checklist as a contract with yourself, not a list of suggestions. Most blow-ups trace back to a step skipped because 'this time is different' — it isn't.

Specific topics to read next

Three pages dig deeper into the mechanics that decide whether the workflow above survives contact with the market: stop-loss, leverage, and the demo where you practice the whole loop.

Education hub — broader learning path
How-to-trade is the action walkthrough. The broader learning path — six tutorial lessons plus video library plus demo practice — lives on the education page.
Learning path
Six tutorial lessons
If this single trade walkthrough wasn't enough, the tutorial page expands into six structured lessons covering order ticket, stop-loss, watchlist, charts, positions, and overall workflow.
Tutorial lessons
Stop-loss mechanics
How stop-loss works on Libertex, why every trade should have one, the difference between regular and guaranteed stops, and how to set distance based on instrument volatility.
Stop-loss
Leverage and multipliers
Real per-category multipliers on Libertex, what they mean in dollars, and why a higher multiplier is rarely a better one for new traders.
Leverage
Demo account
$50,000 virtual funds, real-time platform, no deposit. Practice the entire seven-step flow until each step is automatic before risking real capital.
Demo
How earning actually works — the honest version
Skip the 'unlock your potential' framing. The page explains the symmetric mechanic — you profit if the price moves your way, you lose if it moves against you — plus the published reality: 60-80% of retail CFD traders lose money industry-wide. Useful context before trading with real funds.
Honest earning page

FAQ

How-to-trade questions

Walkthrough done

Run the same flow on a demo trade.

Reading the step-by-step is preparation; placing the trade is the actual learning. Open the demo and run through the workflow you just read — order ticket, stop-loss, position, close. Same platform as live, virtual funds.

Open Account Try demo first

Trading in financial instruments is a risky activity and can bring not only profits, but also losses. The amount of possible losses is limited by the amount of the deposit.

Libertex is not available in United States