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Margin Calculator

Find out how much margin is required to open your trading position

Use this simple Forex and Cryptocurrency Margin and Leverage calculator to find out the amount of funds required to open a trade.

This handy tool will quickly calculate amount needed to open a new position, based on your lot size and leverage.

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What Are Margin and Leverage in Trading?

Leverage gives a trader the ability to control a larger position using less money or margin. While this can provide the ability to increase larger profits, it also means trades can result in larger losses. This is why leverage is known to be called a “double-edged sword”. Leverage trading is also commonly referred to as margin trading. 

Margin is the money you must put up as collateral to open a new position. It’s not a fee or cost and it is only freed up again once the trade is closed.

How does leverage work?

Leverage is often described as a ratio. For example, if you have a leverage of 50:1, that means for every $1 you have in your account, you can place a trade worth up to $50. Let’s say you open a position with a forex pair with a leverage of 50:1, so for every $100 you have in your account you can place a trade worth up to $5000, and so forth.

Now with the same example in mind, if the margin requirement to open a trade size of 0.01 lots on GBP/USD is $1,000 without leverage, and a trader uses 50:1 leverage, then the trader only needs to put $50 as margin.

How to use the Margin and Leverage Calculator?

STEP 1

Select Instrument: You may choose from major and minor pairs, including several forex crosses. Additional pairs available include top indices, metals, energy (such as gold, silver and oil) and popular cryptocurrencies such as BTC, DOGE, ETH, LTC, XRP, etc. 

We will use GBP/USD in our example.

STEP 2

Select Deposit currency: Margin amounts vary depending on the instrument pair and are subject to the current market price. Choosing the deposit currency will accurately show how much margin is required to open a trade for the selected trading instrument and chosen currency.

We will select USD as our deposit currency for our example. 

STEP 3

Select Leverage: Choose the leverage ratio in this field. For example, you may choose leverage from 1:1 up to 500:1 to calculate your amount of margin used to open a trade. 

In our example, we will choose 50:1 leverage. 

STEP 4

Select Lots (trade size): Here you can type in your lot size. Keep in mind, 1 standard lot is equal to 100,000 currency units in forex, but units per lot can differ for non-forex pairs. There is also an option to switch between lots and units for the calculation. 

We will choose a trade size of 0.20 lots. Click the “Calculate” button next to finish.

STEP 5

Results: By using all the data from above, the margin and leverage calculator shows us that if we open a trade position, buy or sell, of a 0.20 lot GBP/USD, with 50:1 leverage and the current GBP/USD exchange rate of 1.23347, our required margin is $493.39 USD. 

We recommend reviewing our Margin & Leverage article, which provides useful information to help traders understand what is leverage in forex trading and how to use it more effectively in FX trading, how leverage affects trading account capital, and much more.

Margin calculation formula and examples

EXAMPLE 1

Trading 4 lots on GBP/USD using 1:200 leverage with an account denominated in USD.

Trade size:

400,000

Account currency exchange rate:

1.23347

Required Margin: 400,000 / 200 * 1.23347 = $2466.94

For forex currency pairs, the margin calculation works as follows:

Required Margin = Trade Size / Leverage * account currency exchange rate (if different from the base currency of the pair traded)

EXAMPLE 2

Trading 1 lot (100 Oz) of GOLD (XAU/USD) using 1:200 leverage with an account denominated in USD.

Trade size:

100 Oz

Market price:

1904.76

Required Margin: 100 / 200 * 1904.76 = $952.38

For metals, the margin calculation works as follows:

Required Margin = Trade Size (0z) / Leverage * Market Price 

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