I find demo accounts quite unrealistic. To get a better idea of the market, you can create micro and mini accounts. See, risking money is something that will happen no matter how hard you try to avoid it. So, it’s better to start with small amounts so that you can learn without risking large amounts.
You can demo trade for as long as you want. It's about gaining the confidence to risk your money. I don’t think anyone else should decide which broker you should use, you’ll have to explore around a bit. Even I'm currently exploring some indicators on XM's demo account even though I have a live one elsewhere.
Micro accounts are the real testing grounds for sure. No fake stuff like demo and no big money which will make you pull your hair <we all know it takes quite a long time to actually start earning big in forex> Best is that you can actually learn how price movements actually affect your trade by simply observing, ain't that neat?!?!
How long did you spend on your demo account? I have actually come across traders who've spent as long as 7 or 8 months only practicing on demo accounts. As far as my opinion goes, demos are good just for familiarising with the trading platform. A month on demo serves the purpose to the max. For newbies and experienced traders alike.
It’s not only beginners who use demo accounts but also professional traders who don’t risk money without testing their strategy on their demo accounts first. They focus on preventing losses more than on making money.
in demo account we always use our trading strategies to see the performance how it works , but this experience not works when trading in a real account.
What is the average execution speed? It depends a lot on speed of execution that's why its really hard to find fast broker. Most of such brokers are basically crowded place and execution starts to slow.
In order to have some experience before starting trading on a real account, you need to work on a demo account.