I’m just starting out and I’ve been using the demo mode with ETHUSD, does anyone trade by mainly watching the fluctations that occur on a short timeframe (1 minute) to time the opening of a trade, or is it just too volatile and unpredictable so that identifying possible trends is impossible? Have to say not had too much success with this approach yet! Is there any instrument where this might work?
It’s not only with you, because it’s basically gambling, statistically speaking you would make more money going to a casino 
The Risk Disclosure Notice says, “CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high [risk] of losing your money.”
There appear to be 24% of CFD traders who make money. Maybe you can become one of them, who knows? I expect I would need more of an edge that I can obtain simply by trying to catch and ride a trend. But some believe they can do it. See, https://www.trading212.com/en/Technical-Analysis?id=3
One can read about various strategies that CFD traders employ. One strategy is to watch the price of a stock at market open, just after an earnings announcement, when the market sometimes over-reacts by a large fall in price that recovers later in the day, or visa versa.
In certain circumstances I have been content to risk losing a small amount of money on a CFD position if helps reduce risk I am taking elsewhere, sort of like paying for an insurance premium. I might be long a stock, not wishing to sell it, but also wishing to guard against the price falling in the next day or two. So I open a short CFD position. Or perhaps I own a US stock and am planning to sell it tomorrow. I would like to protect myself against an overnight exchange rate movement and effectively lock in a known GBP profit. I can do this by buying GBP/USD CFD.
Thanks for replies, I totally appreciate what you say, Richard, about CFD’s. I certainly have no reason to suspect I may be in the 24% who make money.
So far I’ve enjoyed learning about technical analysis from videos on 212 and elsewhere on Youtube and will continue to practice. This platform seems to make trading very accessible but obviously not necessarily a good thing for someone new to this.
Would you have any advice on the kind of trading a beginner should start out on?