IQ Option Demo for Digital Options and CFDs

Products You Can Practise

Practice mode gives you the same instrument menu your account would show live, so it is the accurate place to find out which product types and markets are actually available to you.

Before comparing products, establish what is in front of you. IQ Option presents itself as a trading platform for CFDs on stocks and forex. Beyond that, the specific instruments, product types and conditions attached to them are set by the broker and by the rules in your jurisdiction, and they change over time. No published list is authoritative for your account: the asset menu inside your own demo is.

Open it and read it before anything else. That five-minute check saves you from planning around a product you cannot access.

Digital options

A digital option is a fixed-outcome instrument. You choose an instrument, a direction, a strike level and an expiry time. When the expiry arrives, the position resolves according to whether the condition was met. The defining feature is that your maximum loss on the position is known when you open it, and so is the maximum return: both are shown on the ticket at the time of entry.

That definiteness is what draws beginners to them, and it is also the thing to be careful about: a defined loss is still a loss, and it happens on a fixed schedule you cannot extend.

CFDs

A contract for difference tracks the price of an underlying market. You open a position, it moves with the market, and you realise the difference when you close it. There is no expiry forcing the outcome, which means you control the exit, and also means an open position keeps costing or earning until you act on it. CFDs are typically traded on margin, so the exposure can be larger than the money committed.

Forex instruments

Currency pairs sit within the CFD group and behave the same way structurally: continuous pricing, margined exposure, an exit you choose. What makes them distinct in practice is their session rhythm: liquidity and volatility shift as the major financial centres open and close, so the same pair can feel like two different instruments at different hours. Practising across several sessions is the way to see this.

• Check which product categories appear in your own asset list.
• Note the trading hours shown for each instrument.
• Read the minimum and maximum size the platform will accept.
• Read the cost shown on the order ticket before submitting.

A first-session survey

Spend one practice session doing nothing but surveying, before you trade anything. Write down what you find:

1. Which product categories your asset list contains.
2. Which markets within each category are available to you.
3. The trading hours attached to the instruments you care about.
4. The minimum and maximum size accepted on each.
5. Where the cost of the trade appears on the ticket for each product type.

That page of notes is more useful than any general product guide, because it describes your account rather than a hypothetical one.

Your own demo asset menu is the only accurate statement of which products and markets your account can trade, so start there.

Practising Digital Options

Practising digital options is about learning to think in terms of level and time together. The trade is defined at entry, so nearly all of the skill sits in the decision before you click.

Fixed-outcome products reward preparation and punish improvisation, because once the position is open there is very little to manage.

How they work

The structure is straightforward: an instrument, a direction, a strike level and an expiry. If the condition is met at expiry, the position resolves one way; if not, the other. The amount at stake and the potential return are both displayed on the ticket before you commit. Those values vary by instrument and by market conditions, so read them on the platform at the moment of trading rather than assuming any figure.

What this means practically is that you are making two forecasts at once, direction and timing, and both have to be right. A correct view on direction with the wrong expiry still resolves against you.

Demo behaviour

In practice mode the mechanics behave the same way, with the outcome resolving against the virtual balance. Use that to build the habits the product demands:

1. Pick one instrument and watch how far it typically moves over the expiry lengths you are considering.
2. Place small positions across several different expiry lengths and log which suited the market's pace.
3. Note whether your losses cluster around a particular time of day or around scheduled news.
4. Keep the stake constant so your results are comparable across trades.
5. Review the log for the reason each trade was taken, not just the outcome.

Because the outcome is fixed, sizing discipline is the whole of risk management here: the only lever you control after entry is how much was at stake in the first place.

Regional availability

Whether fixed-outcome products are offered to you at all depends on your region and on the rules that apply there. Rather than assuming, look at your own asset list: if the category is not there, it is not available on your account, regardless of what any general guide describes.

Common mistakes with fixed-outcome trades

Practising is also about finding out how these products go wrong for people. The recurring patterns:

• Choosing an expiry that is shorter than the move the analysis actually implies.
• Increasing the stake after a loss to recover it, which is the fastest way to compound a bad run.
• Treating a defined maximum loss as a small loss, when repeated often enough it is not.
• Trading through scheduled news without accounting for how quickly the level can be crossed.
• Taking positions constantly because each one is quick, rather than waiting for the setup.

Each of these is cheap to discover in practice and expensive to discover live.

With a fixed-outcome product the entire decision happens before entry, so practise on expiry selection and constant stake size rather than trade management.

Practising CFDs

CFDs need active management: the position runs until you close it, and margin means the exposure can be larger than the amount committed. This is the product where practice pays off most.

If digital options are a decision made once, CFDs are a decision maintained. That difference changes which habits matter.

Leverage on demo

Margined trading means a relatively small amount of capital supports a larger position, and the effect runs in both directions equally. A move that would be modest on an unleveraged position becomes significant on a margined one — including when it goes against you. The available leverage is set by the broker and by the rules applying to your account, and it is shown on the platform; do not plan around any figure quoted elsewhere.

The practice account is the right place to feel this rather than read about it. Open a modest margined position, watch what a normal market move does to the balance, and let the arithmetic land properly before real money is involved.

Position sizing

Size follows from risk, not from what the platform will allow. The workable method:

1. Decide the maximum percentage of the balance you will risk on one trade, and fix it.
2. Decide where the trade is wrong, and put the stop there.
3. Work out the size that makes the distance to that stop equal your risk amount.
4. Place the order with the stop attached rather than adding it afterwards.
5. Leave the stop where it is unless your written plan says otherwise.

Practise this until the calculation is quick. It transfers to live trading at full value, unlike your win rate.

Risk awareness

A few things are worth internalising while they are free:

• An open position keeps running while you are away from the screen.
• Holding positions overnight or over a weekend can carry costs and gap risk.
• Several correlated positions are effectively one large position.
• Margin means losses can accumulate faster than the committed amount suggests.
• A stop caps the intended loss but fills at market, so fast conditions can cost more.

Our demo versus real conditions page covers that last point in detail.

Managing an open position

Because a CFD keeps running, the skill is in what you do after entry. Practise a fixed routine:

1. Check the position against the reason you opened it: has that reason changed?
2. Leave the stop alone unless your written plan describes moving it.
3. Take the target when it arrives rather than extending it in the moment.
4. Decide in advance whether you will hold across a session close, and act on that decision.
5. Close the position rather than leaving it open simply because you are unsure.

Positions that are held without a reason tend to become positions held because closing would confirm a loss. That is a habit worth breaking while it costs nothing.

CFD risk is managed through size and stops, and both are skills that transfer completely from practice to a funded account.

Product Differences

The two product families differ in how cost is charged, how risk evolves and how much management a position needs. Knowing which fits your temperament matters more than knowing which is theoretically better.

Neither product is superior. They ask for different things from the trader, and the demo is where you find out which set of demands suits you.

Payout versus spread

The cost structures are shaped differently. A fixed-outcome product prices the trade through the return offered against the amount staked, shown at entry. A CFD prices the trade through the spread and any associated holding costs, applied as you trade and hold. Both are real costs; they simply arrive in different forms. In each case the live values sit on the platform at the moment you place the order.

Risk profiles

A fixed-outcome trade has a known worst case at the moment you open it, which suits people who want certainty and a defined commitment. A CFD has an outcome shaped by how you manage it, which suits people who prefer control and are willing to do the work of managing an open position. The trade-off is genuine in both directions: certainty costs flexibility, and flexibility requires discipline.

Availability by region

Availability is set by the broker and by local rules, and the sign-up flow is what tells you whether your country is accepted. If a product category is missing from your asset list, that is the answer for your account. Check your own regulator's public register for the current status of any firm before funding anything, and readers in India should check the RBI Alert List first.

Which one suits how you actually trade

The practical question is not which product is better but which fits your circumstances:

• Limited screen time favours a product whose outcome is defined at entry over one needing active management.
• A preference for control favours a product where you choose the exit.
• Discomfort with open-ended risk favours a known maximum at entry.
• An approach built around a target and a stop maps naturally onto a continuously priced instrument.

Trade each on the demo for a stretch before deciding. The answer is usually obvious once you have felt both.

Fixed-outcome products trade certainty for rigidity; CFDs trade flexibility for the obligation to manage — practise both and pick the one that fits how you work.

Honest Availability Note

Product availability is a moving target shaped by regulation and by the broker. The honest position is that only your own account can tell you what you can trade today.

This section exists because a lot of trading content describes a product menu that may not match yours. Here is the position stated plainly.

EU product limits

Retail product availability in the European Economic Area is shaped by European regulation, and the rules governing which products may be offered to retail clients and on what terms have changed over time. The result is that a product offered in one jurisdiction may not be offered, or may be offered on different terms, in another. This applies across the industry, not to any one broker.

Post-ESMA changes

Following European regulatory intervention on retail derivatives, brokers operating in the region adjusted what they offer retail clients. We are not going to summarise the current rule set as though it were fixed — it is not, and a page written today would be a poor guide to it. What matters for you is the practical consequence: what your account offers is determined by where you are and which entity you are dealing with, and it can differ from what a general guide describes.

Neutral status framing

So treat availability as something to verify rather than assume:

• Open your practice account and read your own asset list; that is the definitive answer.
• Read the product terms shown on the platform at the point of trading.
• Check the current status of the entity on your own regulator's public register.
• Do not rely on any third-party list of "available products", including this one.

For reference on the licence itself: the CySEC public register lists Cyprus Investment Firm licence 247/14, dated 30 July 2014, company number 327751, held by IQBroker Europe Ltd, recorded there as formerly named IQOption Europe Ltd. These regulatory details were verified against the CySEC public register on 3 September 2026, and registers change — confirm the current entry before acting on it.

None of this is a reason to hesitate about practising. The demo costs nothing, needs no deposit, and answers the availability question for you in minutes. Our regional availability page covers the location side, and the main demo guide covers getting started. Trading carries a risk of loss, and demo results do not predict real results.

Why this page will not list products for you

Publishing a definitive product list would be convenient and would also be wrong within months. Offerings shift with regulation, with the entity your account sits under, and with commercial decisions we have no visibility into. A list that is right for one reader is misleading for another in a different country and out of date for both within a year.

The version that stays accurate is the one on your screen. Open the demo, read the asset list, read the order ticket, and treat that as the answer. It costs nothing, needs no deposit, and it is current by definition.

Product availability is set by region and current rules — open the demo and read your own asset list rather than trusting any published product menu.