What is leverage?
Leverage affects the funds required to place a position, multiplying your buying power, allowing you to open a position larger than your deposit. Leverage requires you to post collateral with us in the form of margin and the higher the leverage the less the required margin to open a position of equivalent value or for the same initial margin you can open much larger positions.
| Initial margin | Leverage | Buying Power (units) |
|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | 1:1 | $1,000 |
| $1,000 | 1:10 | $10,000 |
| $1,000 | 1:33 | $33,000 |
Leverage can be expressed either as a Ratio, or in a % format. Both are displayed on our website for easy understanding.
For example, saying you have leverage 1:20 is the same as saying you are required to have a margin that is only 5% of the overall value of the trade.
Excessive use of leverage can of course be very risky because it can magnifies your P&Land this can lead to large losses which can lead to stop out, the automatic closing of your position. This is because your collateral available to sustain potential losses and not fall below the ‘maintenance margin’ required so that your position is not liquidated, is much less as a % of the position when using higher leverage.
Also note that higher leverage increases the effect of spread and Swap fees as a % on your invested capital. For example if the spread on an instrument as a % is 0.1% and you open a trade with 20 times leverage the spread cost as a % on your deposited margin will be 2%.
Example:
With leverage 1:5 you would need to deposit EUR 20,000 to open 1 lot of EURUSD (100,000) , while at leverage 1:30 you could open the same trade with only EUR 3,333.
Please refer to the margin calculator, https://www.fxpro.com/trading-tools/calculators/all-in-one. Here you can test how much of your margin will be needed to open a trade at different leverages and with different lot sizes