Forex Leverage Explained

What is Leverage?

Leverage is the technique of using a loan in order to increase the size of a trade or investment, which in turn increases the potential risk and reward. Common examples may be a company borrowing money in order to fund investment in a new shop or factory, or a homeowner using a mortgage to finance a property which they hope to sell at a profit.

In foreign exchange markets the rate may only change by a fraction of a penny a day, so in order to boost potential earnings a broker will offer a loan to a trader to multiply the size of their trade allowing bigger gains from a smaller position.

How is Leverage Implemented in Forex?

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Broker	Our Rating	Description	Minimum Deposit	Regulation	Visit
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HF Markets Ltd. (HotForex)	4.5	8 Trading Platforms Spreads from 0.1 Pips $0 fees on deposits	$5	FSC & CySEC	Visit Broker HF Markets Ltd. (HotForex) ReviewROTW	Risk Warning: Your capital may be at risk
Plus500	4.5	No commissions and low spreads Advanced trading tools Minimal account fees	€100	FCA, CySec :	Visit Broker Plus500 ReviewT1 ROTW	Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 80.6% 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.
Easy Markets	4.5	Free Guaranteed Stop Loss Segregated funds at top tier banks Fixed spreads & negative balance protection	$100	ASIC, CySEC	Visit Broker Easy Markets ReviewT1 ROTW	Risk Warning: Your capital may be at risk
ETX Capital	4	Choice of two professional trading platforms – TraderPro and MT4 Free trading course for deposits over £1,000 Choice of Forex, CFDs, Spread Betting and Cryptocurrencies	€100	FCA	Visit Broker ETX Capital ReviewT1	Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 79.6% 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.
eToro	4	The leading Social Trading platform with 4.5m traders Follow other traders or be a leader Personal service and VIP perks	$200	FCA, CySec, ASIC	Visit Broker eToro Review	Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 65% 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.
Markets.com	4	Tight spreads without commissions Advanced charting tools	$100	CySec	Visit Broker Markets.com ReviewT1 ROTW	Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 73% 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.
InstaForex	3.5	'Asia's top broker' Wide choice of leverage options	$1	RAFMM, The Federal	Visit Broker InstaForex ReviewROTW	Risk Warning: Your capital may be at risk
EXNESS (NZ) Ltd.	3.5	Instant fund withdrawals - no commissions Tight spreads from 0.1 points Unlimited leverage	-	FDR (NZ), CySEC	Visit Broker EXNESS (NZ) Ltd. ReviewT1 ROTW	Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74-89% 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.
FXPrimus	3	Trusted by 100,000s of traders Fully licensed in the EU by CySec Tight spreads and fast withdrawals	$100	CySec	Visit Broker FXPrimus ReviewROTW	Risk Warning: Your capital may be at risk
OLYMP TRADE	2		10		Visit Broker OLYMP TRADE Review	Risk Warning: Your capital may be at risk

Broker rankings last updated 22/01/2020 15:15

The use of leverage is a key aspect of Forex trading.

Forex trading contracts are very large, but brokers permit their clients to access small parts of them using leverage.

When an investor first opens up an account with a broker, one of the first options to be chosen is the level of leverage obtained.

Usually, the amount of leverage provided is either 50:1, 100:1 or 200:1, depending on the broker and the size of the position the investor is trading.

Leverage of 200:1 is usually used for positions of $50,000 or less. Many traders have “mini-accounts,” so that, to trade $100,000 of currency, with a margin of 1%, an investor will only have to deposit $1,000 into his or her margin account.

The leverage provided on a trade like this is 100:1. Leverage of this size is significantly larger than the 2:1 leverage commonly provided on equities and the 15:1 leverage provided by the futures market.

This would ordinarily seem terribly risky, but traders are never asked to “cover their margins” in forex trading.

Currency prices usually change by less than 1% in a given day. Should a major shift take place, the broker has an automatic “stop” in place that will prevent your account from losing more than the cash or credit it has in place.

This is why it is difficult to trade forex with less than US$10,000 (or the equivalent) on hand even in a mini-account – a sizable shift in the value of one currency can devour all the money in an account in a matter of seconds.

To avoid such losses, forex traders usually implement a strict trading style that includes the use of stop and limit orders.