How To Open A Gain Capital API Demo Trading Account

These are the steps I went through in order to open a demo trading account to use the Gain Capital API.

I put them here because the steps written on their website will have you contacting their support desk and asking "ok, what do I do now?".

If you have to deviate from these steps for some reason, could you please leave a comment.

1. Register for the API forum:
   http://api.efxnow.com/forum/profile.php?mode=register
   From this step you get a forum username which you need to complete a later step.


2. Create a real account:
   Use the "Open Account" link at the top right of their home page: http://www.gaincapital.com/
   Note that this real account does not have to be funded, just created. Part of the process is web-based, and if you are not a US citizen there are also a couple of things to be printed and faxed. From this step you get a User ID for the live account.


3. Sign up for free API demo:
   http://www.gaincapital.com/openaccount_api.html
   You need your forum username from Step #1 to complete this. (And, by the way, you are not an institutional trader :-) From this step you get a User ID for the demo account.


4. Go to the their Contact Us page and use the Live Help feature:
   http://www.gaincapital.com/contactus_index.html
   Explain that you want to set up an API demo account, and that you've already done all the steps. Give your live account User ID and API demo account User ID. They'll enable API trading in your demo account and give you a "brand code" (which is most likely going to be "GAPI"). Now that you have the brand code, you have all you need.
   
   N.b. So far you have created a live account, a demo account, and a forum account. You have not transferred any money to your live account, and you don't need to.
   
   You have enabled API trading in the demo account only. That is, API trading is not yet switched on in your live account. You should probably leave it like that for now.


5. However, when the time comes to enable API trading in your live account, first you need to put a minimum of $5,000 in that account. Then contact their support again and ask them to enable API trading in your live account. You can't just use the same brand code from before - they need to do something at their end as well.

Note that the Gain website did not load properly for me using Firefox 1.0.7, so I recommend to use Internet Explorer during the application process.

Except for the faxes, all steps involved in creating and using the Gain Capital API should be free.