How to Open a Trading Account: the Step-by-Step Guide

So you are finally ready to put your financial future in your own hands and start trading forex. Congratulations. Learning something new is the first step to growing as a person. This growth is important if you are hoping to make significant changes to your lifestyle in the future. There can be no victory without challenge, and your first milestone is to get a verified online trading account so you can access the foreign exchange market from home or on the go.

Starting a forex career can seem overwhelming for the first few weeks. At Exness, we go to great lengths to make your learning curve as fast and stress-free as possible. To help you through the signup process, we’ve made these videos to guide you, step-by-step, all the way to making your very first trade.

Step 1: getting registered for a trading account

It’s very easy to register for a trading account with Exness. Click here to open the signup page in a new tab. If you want to get everything done in the next 10 minutes, be sure to have a credit card, ID, and, proof of address by your side. If you’re not feeling confident just yet, you can choose to open a demo account without any these things. Either way, everything you need to know is here in this two-minute video. Pause the video as you go through the first three steps.

Tip: Which account type depends on the amount you wish to deposit. Leverage allows you to make a large investment from a small deposit. If you are looking for high profit with higher risk, a higher leverage setting might be right for you. Should you prefer a slower-burning safety with lower results, then keep your leverage low. You can never lose more than you have, but higher leverage means faster results… both good and bad.

Step 2: prove who you are

Exness takes security very seriously, and they check every client signing up. Just like opening an Amazon or bank account, you’ll need to prove who you are before gaining access to the global markets. Watch this one-minute video to see how.

Tip: While you’re waiting for your real trading account to be approved, open up a demo account and start getting to know the trading platform.

Step 3: how to get access to the market

Trades are made using the award-winning MT4 trading platform. Inside the box of the demo or real trading account you’ll see a gear cog. Click the gear cog to make a deposit. Use the passwords provided in the email you received. Click the gear cog again and select SIGN IN TO MT4 WEBTERMINAL then follow this one-minute video. You’re about to make your first virtual trade on the real markets.

Step 4: choosing a currency pair

As a default, the top currency pair on the list will have an open chart. Right click on the chart and select the “close” option.

As a professional trader, selecting the right pair requires some research. For a first-time test, any pair will be sufficient. Drag a pair from the list of currencies on the left side of the trading terminal and drop it in the middle. Now you can see the price line for that currency pair. Remember, the chart indicates the price of the base currency (the first three letters of the currency pair). If you have EURUSD open, and the chart shows an upward trend, then the euro is on the rise. The old saying goes, “what goes up, must come down.” Obviously, this principle goes the other way too.  Your mission is to find a moment when the price direction is going to swing or reverse. If you feel the price is about to go up (bullish), then Buy, if it looks like it’s been trading high and the price has started a downward (bearish) trend, then Sell.

Step 5: making a trade

There are many ways to open your trade. You can select from the buy and sell options on the top left of the chart. Preferably, double-click the currency pair on the list. Right click on the chart when you’re ready to make your first trade. Time to set the trading volume, depending on how confident you are, in the direction you are forecasting. This is also the perfect time to set your Stop Loss and Take Profit. Click the arrow to the right of the Stop Loss and Take Profit prices.

Note how the blue and dark red lines in the popup graph sit above and below the Buy (Ask) and Sell(Bid) price. In the example, we traded long (Buy) and got a message confirming that the order was successful. If you get an error, then probably the volume you set was too high for your balance, or your Stop Loss/Take Profit was too close to the spread. Remember, every order starts as a negative result because of the spread. Be patient. Your Take Profit will activate when the time is right, and your Stop Loss is protecting you. To close an order, you have three options. At the bottom, click the X on the right or right-click the order. If you double click the order, you can close or modify the order.

Congratulations!

You now know how to make a trade. Once you can perform the basic tasks, you might want to start looking into forex indicators and expert advisors (trading robots) to take your trading performance to the next level. Forex trading can be an exciting way to spend your free time, and you’ll actually learn some real-world skills that will serve you well throughout your lifetime. Be patient, learn and test one of the popular trading strategies, get familiar with the most effective trading tools, and who knows, you might one day be one of the lucky few full-time traders. How will you spend your day?

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SET UP AN EXNESS TRADING ACCOUNT HERE

This article is a marketing communication and does not constitute investment advice or research. Its content represents the general views of our experts and does not consider individual readers’ personal circumstances, investment experience, or current financial situation. This article is not prepared in accordance with legal requirements promoting independent investment research, and Exness is not subject to any prohibition on dealing before the release of the article. Readers should consider the possibility that they may incur losses. Therefore, Exness is not liable for any losses incurred due to the use of its articles. Please note that past performance of an asset is not a reliable indicator of future results.