How to join for free, and which competition to choose.
Checked on 2 October 2026
In an XM demo competition, you trade 1,000 USD of virtual money for a week or for a day. The traders with the highest equity at the end win real cash.
Contents
Which XM Competition Is Best?
Start with the free Demo Weekly. After that, choose the 5 USD Daily Arena if you want to keep competing.
- First 2 entries: Demo Weekly, for free
Your entry costs nothing, and 100 traders win cash every week. The first free entry needs a verified real trading account. The second free entry needs 50 USD in your real trading accounts. - After your free entries: the 5 USD Daily Arena
In Daily Arena, XM pays 75% of the entry fees back as prizes. Your chance of a prize is also more than 4 times higher than in Demo Weekly. - To practise your usual trading: a demo account
Winning a competition needs large trade sizes, and growing a real account needs smaller ones. For the trading that you plan to do with real money, practise on an XM demo account.
The table below compares the two competitions on 2 October 2026.
| Details | Demo Weekly | Daily Arena |
|---|---|---|
| Entry fee | Free 2 times, then 25 USD | 5 USD |
| Prize pool | 25,000 USD | 1,000 to 5,000 USD |
| Winners | Top 100 | Top 10 |
| Prize for 1st place | 2,000 USD | About 395 USD |
| Chance of a prize | 1 in 160 | 1 in 35 |
| Prize pool per trader | About 1.56 USD | About 3.75 USD |
| Competition length | 1 week | 1 day, every weekday |
The chance and the prize pool per trader use 16,000 traders for Demo Weekly and 351 traders for Daily Arena. These numbers are close to recent competitions.
Use your 2 free entries. They cost nothing, and the prizes are real cash.
After that, we recommend Daily Arena if you want to keep competing. Demo Weekly costs 25 USD, but its prize pool is only about 1.56 USD for each trader. Daily Arena pays about 3.75 USD of each 5 USD fee back as prizes.
Treat a competition as a different game from your real trading. Only about 1 in 160 traders wins a prize, so a prize needs a very large profit in one week.
In a competition, a 20% loss only disqualifies you. On a real trading account, the same loss is your own money.
So keep the large trade sizes of a competition inside the competition. On your real trading account, we recommend a trade size that lets you keep trading after several losses in a row.
Are the Prizes Real Money?
Yes, the prizes are real money. XM pays them into your XM Wallet after the competition, and you can withdraw them. The Wallet is the icon at the top right of the Members Area.
The table below shows the prizes in Demo Weekly.
| Final position | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st place | 2,000 USD |
| 2nd place | 1,500 USD |
| 3rd place | 1,250 USD |
| 4th place | 1,000 USD |
| 5th place | 750 USD |
| 6th to 10th place | 450 USD per trader |
| 11th to 20th place | 375 USD per trader |
| 21st to 40th place | 250 USD per trader |
| 41st to 70th place | 150 USD per trader |
| 71st to 100th place | 100 USD per trader |
In Daily Arena, the prize pool grows with the number of traders. The table below uses the prize pool of 1,316 USD on 2 October 2026, when 351 traders took part.
| Final position | Share | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st place | 30% | About 395 USD |
| 2nd place | 20% | About 263 USD |
| 3rd place | 15% | About 197 USD |
| 4th to 10th place, each | 5% | About 66 USD |
Is XM’s Demo Competition Free?
Yes, 2 times. After 2 free entries, you pay the entry fee on the competition card.
- First free entry: a verified real trading account
You can join without a deposit. The XM verification guide shows the documents. - Second free entry: 50 USD in your real trading accounts
The equity of all your real trading accounts must add up to 50 USD or more. The XM deposit guide shows the ways to deposit. - After that: 25 USD for Demo Weekly
The entry fee for Daily Arena is always 5 USD.
This is why the card in the Members Area can show an entry fee of 25 USD, while the XM website says that Demo Weekly is free.
Joining uses 1 free entry, even if you never trade. A trader who never trades also receives no prize, so join when you have time to trade that week.
How Do You Join a Competition?
You join on the Competitions page in the XM Members Area. XM opens a separate competition account for you.
Log in to the XM Members Area (opens in a new tab). On Home, tap XM Competitions.
Under In Progress, tap the competition that you want to join.
Check the rules and the prizes. Then tap Start Competing. If your free entries are used up, XM asks you to pay the entry fee.
Trade on the competition page. MT4 and MT5 are not used in a competition.
If you have no XM account yet, open a real trading account and verify it first. With our partner code GJQYM, your real trades also earn a rebate. The XM account opening guide shows the steps.
What Are the Rules?
The trader with the highest equity at the end wins. Equity is your balance plus the profit or loss of your open trades.
The rules below decide whether you keep your place in the ranking.
- Ranking: your equity at the end
XM ranks traders by their equity when the competition ends. Your highest equity during the week is used only for the loss limit. - Disqualified: a 20% fall from your highest equity
For example, if your equity rises from 1,000 USD to 1,250 USD and then falls to 1,000 USD, that is a 20% fall. XM then removes you from Demo Weekly. - No trades: no prize
XM pays prizes only to traders who traded during the competition. - Trading: on the competition page only
In a competition, MT4, MT5, Expert Advisors (EAs) and copying other traders are not allowed. - One entry for each person
XM can disqualify entries from the same IP address or from members of the same family. - Re-entry: only after you are disqualified
In Demo Weekly, a re-entry costs 5 USD, and you can re-enter up to 5 times. - Account: Standard, 1,000 USD, leverage 100:1
This leverage is lower than on most XM real trading accounts, so plan your trade sizes for 100:1.
XM shows the rules of each competition on its card, under Overview. Check them before you join, because XM can change them.
XM Demo Competition FAQ
- Is the XM demo competition legit?
-
Yes. XM runs it in its own Members Area, under published terms. The Hall of Fame on the Competitions page lists the winners since March 2025.
- Can I use my XM demo account or MT5?
-
No. Each competition has its own account on the competition page. XM closes that account when the competition ends. To practise on MT5, use an XM demo account.
- Do I need to deposit to join?
-
No, not for your first free entry. You need a verified real trading account. For the second free entry, you need 50 USD in your real trading accounts.
- Do competition trades earn a rebate or XMC?
-
No. Competition trades use virtual money. A rebate and XMC come from trades on your real trading accounts.
- What is the XM Funded League?
-
It was a limited-time XM competition in June 2026, with funded accounts as prizes. New limited-time competitions appear under Upcoming on the Competitions page.
- Can traders in every country join?
-
XM can limit a competition to some countries. If a competition card appears in your Members Area, you can join that competition.
Sources: where each fact on this page comes from
XM’s terms and screens
- XM Competitions Program terms (opens in a new tab)
- The version of 10 June 2026: the 2 free entries and the 50 USD condition, the ranking by equity, the loss limit, one account for each person, prizes in real money to the Wallet, and no prize without a trade.
- XM Members Area
- The competition cards, the prizes and the rules of Demo Weekly and Daily Arena on 2 October 2026. The number of traders in past Demo Weekly competitions comes from the cards under Ended.
- XM page for partners
- The page describes the competition prizes as withdrawable cash.
- News releases of 27 May 2026
- The dates and the prizes of the XM Funded League.
This site’s figures
- Chance of a prize and prize pool for each trader
- We divided the winners and the prize pool by the number of traders. For Demo Weekly, we used 16,000 traders, because recent competitions had between 14,106 and 17,595 traders. For Daily Arena, we used the competition of 2 October 2026, with 351 traders and a prize pool of 1,316 USD.
Once your XM trading account is open, link it to Forex FanClub. The member area lists every rebate payment day by day, across every broker you use. Registration is free and takes an email address.
Produced and operated by Forex FanClub
Person responsible: Hiroki Sakaida, founder of Forex FanClub
Hiroki Sakaida decides what our content and services cover and which features they offer. He also checks content and functionality and decides on revisions and publication. Our Content and Service Policy explains how we produce and check our content and services, including our use of AI.
Risk warning: Forex and CFD trading involve leverage, and you could lose all the money you invest. This article and tool provide information, not investment advice. The amounts shown are calculated from the collected data and do not guarantee the amounts that will apply to your own trades, or any future profit.
Affiliate disclosure: This article contains XM referral links. Forex FanClub receives referral commission based on registrations and trading through these links.