Where to start.
For people who have never traded. It explains what trading is, what you trade and what it costs. Then it walks you through five steps to your first practice trade.
What trading is.
The one idea behind every trade, and one word, leverage, to be careful with.
Trading means predicting whether the price of something, such as a currency, will rise or fall. If you are right, you make money. If you are wrong, you lose money. That is the whole idea. Everything else on this page is detail.
Leverage lets you trade with more money than you put in. Clarity offers leverage up to 1:500, so $1 of your money can control a $500 trade. That makes gains bigger, and it makes losses grow just as fast. A demo account, which uses practice money, lets you watch this happen before any real money is involved.
What you trade.
Three words you will meet on day one: FX, CFD and instrument.
FX.
FX (foreign exchange) is one currency priced in another. EUR/USD is the euro priced in US dollars. This guide uses it for your first practice trade.
A CFD.
CFD means contract for difference. You open a trade at one price and close it at another. You make or lose the difference. You never own the currency or share.
Instruments.
An instrument is anything you can trade. Clarity lists 2000+ in five types: FX, indices (baskets of shares), commodities (gold, oil), shares and crypto (Bitcoin and Ethereum CFDs only).
What it costs.
Two words explain the cost of a trade: spread and pip. A demo costs nothing.
Every instrument has two prices: a buy price and a sell price. The gap between them is the spread. You pay that gap on every trade. A pip is a tiny price step. On EUR/USD, a move from 1.1000 to 1.1001 is one pip. EUR/USD is a major pair: one of the most-traded.
Clarity has three account types. Standard is the one for beginners. Its only cost is the spread: 0.8 pips on major pairs such as EUR/USD. There is no commission (a separate fee per trade). Trade size is measured in lots. The smallest trade is 0.01 lots. At that size, 30 pips on EUR/USD is about $3 either way.
Demo or live?
Open a demo first and add a live account later, or run both. Here is what changes between them.
| Demo | Live | |
|---|---|---|
| Money | Practice funds. | Your funds. |
| What you can lose | Nothing. It is practice money. | Real money. Every loss comes out of your balance. |
| What you need | An email address. No card, no ID, no deposit. | Photo ID, proof of address dated within three months, then a deposit. |
| Prices and trades | Real market prices. Practice trades: a simulator completes them at those prices. | The same real market prices. Real trades. Clarity is the counterparty to your trade and hedges its exposure. |
| Platform | MetaTrader 5 (MT5), the app you trade on: desktop, phone or browser. | The same MetaTrader 5. Nothing to relearn. |
How do I start?
Five steps at your own pace. Each says when you are done and which guide covers it.
Sign up. About 3 minutes
Go to the sign-up page. Enter your name, email and date of birth. No card yet. Choose demo first; add live later. Done when you can log in. Guide: How to open an account.
Prove who you are. Usually within 1 working day
Live only; the demo skips this. Upload a photo ID and proof of address dated within three months. Done when Clarity approves them. Guide: How to open an account.
Get MetaTrader 5. A few minutes
MT5 (MetaTrader 5) is the free trading app: desktop, phone or browser. Get it from the MT5 page; log in with the details Clarity emailed. Done when prices move. Guide: How to access the markets.
Add money. Card now; bank 1–3 days
Live only. Deposit $50 or more by card, e-wallet or crypto; any amount by bank transfer. Use money you can afford to lose. Done when your balance shows. Guide: How to deposit.
Place one small trade. Take as long as you want
Buy or sell EUR/USD at 0.01 lots: 30 pips is about $3 either way. Set a stop-loss: it closes the trade at your chosen price. Done when it closes. Guide: How to access the markets.
When are you ready for live?
Stay on the demo until every line below is true. It costs nothing to wait.
You can open and close a 0.01-lot trade with a stop-loss without looking anything up.
You can find your way around the MT5 app without hunting for buttons.
You have traded through one big news event on the demo and seen the spread get wider.
Your trade size stayed the same through a losing run; you did not go bigger to catch up.
You have money set aside that you can afford to lose.
When all five are true, add a live account. You can keep the demo running alongside it. The app looks the same; the difference is that live losses are real money. Start on Standard. Place one 0.01-lot trade with a stop-loss. There is no rush.
Questions, answered.
The questions first-time traders ask, including the ones people feel awkward asking. If yours is not here, ask support.
01I have never traded before. Am I in over my head?
02Do I need a live account, or can I start on a demo?
03Which account type should I start on?
04How long does it all take?
Ready when you are.
Open a free demo and place practice trades until the app feels familiar. Then add a live account. There is no rush.
Trading CFDs on a live account puts your capital at risk and you can lose money. A demo does not.