Margin calculator
Margin is what your broker sets aside while a position is open. It is not what the position is worth, and it is not what you can lose — both of those are larger, and confusing them is how accounts disappear.
$1,162.49
to hold 1.00 lot at 100:1
Show the working +Hide the working −
- Position value = 100,000 EUR × 1.00 lots × 1.16249 = $116,249.00.
- Margin = $116,249.00 ÷ 100 = $1,162.49.
- That is what is set aside, not what is at risk. The whole $116,249.00 moves with the market.
Prices shown are our last stored reading and are indicative only. Contract sizes follow the standard market conventions and are printed above the calculator; your account’s own specification is what applies to a real position. Nothing here is a recommendation.
The number that matters is the one underneath
A standard lot of EUR/USD at 1.0900 is a $109,000 position. At 100:1 leverage the margin is $1,090. Both figures are real, and the one people remember is the small one.
The whole $109,000 moves with the market. A 1% move against you — an ordinary day — is $1,090, which is the entire margin. This is what leverage does: it does not reduce your exposure, it reduces the deposit needed to take it.
Lower leverage on the same position size does not make you safer, because the position is identical; it only ties up more of your balance. What makes you safer is a smaller position.
Margin call and stop-out
As a position moves against you, your equity falls while the margin requirement stays roughly the same. The ratio between them is your margin level. Below a certain level you are warned; below a lower one, positions are closed automatically to stop the account going negative.
That automatic close happens at the market price at that moment, which in a fast market may be well past the level you expected. It is not a stop loss you chose, and it is not a protection you can rely on to preserve capital.
Common questions
- Is margin a fee?
- No. It is your own money, held aside while the position is open and released when it closes. What costs you money is the spread, any commission, and overnight financing.
- Does higher leverage mean higher risk?
- Not by itself. It permits a larger position on the same deposit, and it is the larger position that carries the risk. The same one lot behaves identically at 30:1 and 100:1; only the deposit differs.
- What happens if my margin runs out?
- Positions are closed automatically, starting with the largest loss, until the account is back above the required level. You do not choose which or at what price.
- Why is USD/JPY margin the same at any price?
- Because the dollar is the base currency: one lot is 100,000 US dollars by definition, so the position value does not move with the rate the way a EUR/USD position does.
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