Demo and lIve trading are the same things I think. If you choose good broker, you will trade demo with the same trading platform, spreads and quotes, However, there are some mistakes most people do. I think this mistakes make demo trading not effective, so try to overcome them. Firstly, as we know, brokers always offer very high demo-accounts, something like $5,000 demo or even $10,000 demo. That's good offer if you will deposit similar sum of money when you will move up to real trading. Bit if you will trade with $500, that's bad idea to learn trading with $10,000. It's better choose $500 demo account. Secondly, many people forget about demo trading and consider it as a kind of game, That's so bad I think, as people don't control emotions and then, when they trade real money, they fear to lose or become too greede. So just balance this 2 things to get all benefits of demo-trading.