Quotex trading is built around one simple question: will the price of an asset be higher or lower than it is now when the timer runs out? You choose an asset, an expiry time and an amount, then pick Up or Down. If you are right, you receive your stake back plus a fixed percentage. If you are wrong, you lose the amount you staked. The mechanics are easy. Making money consistently is not, and this guide explains both sides.
How a Quotex trade works
Quotex offers fixed-return trades, often grouped with binary options. Every trade has three settings:
- Asset — a currency pair, cryptocurrency, commodity or index.
- Expiry — how long the trade runs, from about a minute up to several hours.
- Amount — how much you stake. The minimum is $1.
Next to each asset the platform shows a payout percentage, for example 85%. That is what you earn on a winning trade. Stake $10 at 85% and a correct prediction returns $18.50, which is your $10 back plus $8.50 profit. A wrong prediction loses the full $10.
Placing your first trade, step by step
Do this on the free demo account first. The screen is the same as a live account.
- Check the balance at the top of the screen and make sure the demo balance is selected.
- Open the asset list and choose a pair, such as EUR/USD. Note the payout percentage shown next to it.
- Set the expiry time in the trade panel on the right.
- Enter the trade amount. On demo, use the amount you would really risk, not a huge number.
- Click Up if you expect the price to finish higher, or Down if you expect it to finish lower.
- Watch the open trade on the chart. When the timer ends, the result is added to or taken from your balance automatically.
If any part of the screen is unclear, the Quotex trading screen guide explains each panel.
The maths every Quotex trader should know
Because a win pays less than 100% and a loss costs 100%, you need to be right more than half the time just to break even. The formula is simple: break-even win rate equals 1 divided by (1 + payout).
| Payout | Break-even win rate | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 90% | 52.6% | Win 53 of every 100 trades to stay level |
| 85% | 54.1% | Win 55 of every 100 trades to stay level |
| 80% | 55.6% | Win 56 of every 100 trades to stay level |
| 70% | 58.8% | Win 59 of every 100 trades to stay level |
Short-term price moves are close to random, so a guessing trader wins around 50% of the time and slowly loses money because of this gap. This is the main reason most retail traders in these products lose. Anyone selling a signal or strategy with a claimed accuracy should be able to show a long, verifiable record above these numbers. Very few can.
Expiry times: short is not easier
Very short expiries, one minute or less, feel exciting and let you place many trades quickly. They are also where price movement is most random and where emotional over-trading happens. Beginners usually do better learning on longer expiries, such as 5 to 15 minutes, where a reason for the trade has time to play out.
Money management basics
- Risk a small, fixed share of your balance per trade, for example 1% to 2%.
- Set a daily loss limit and stop when you hit it.
- Never double the stake after a loss to win it back. This strategy, often called martingale, is how small accounts are wiped out in a single bad run.
- Keep a trade journal with the reason for every trade.
Common beginner mistakes
- Trading on the live balance while thinking it is the demo.
- Jumping between many assets instead of learning a few.
- Following paid signal groups with unverifiable results.
- Taking a deposit bonus without reading the trading volume conditions, which can delay withdrawals.
- Depositing more after a losing streak to recover losses.
Moving from demo to live
If your written demo record shows a win rate clearly above break-even across many trades, the next step is a small live deposit. The minimum is $5. Read our guides to deposit methods and account verification first, and treat the first deposit as a test of the platform rather than an investment.