Margin Calculator

Margin is the amount of money required in your account to open and maintain a leveraged position. It acts as a good-faith deposit to your broker, ensuring you can cover potential losses on your trades.

The formula is straightforward: Required Margin = Notional Value / Leverage. For example, trading 1 standard lot of EURUSD (worth $100,000) at 1:500 leverage requires only $200 in margin.

Always check your margin requirements before entering a trade. If your free margin drops below the maintenance level, your broker may issue a margin call or automatically close positions to prevent further losses.

Scenario: You want to trade 0.50 lots of EUR/USD with 1:100 leverage and need to know how much margin your broker will hold.

Step 1: Select EUR/USD as your pair

Step 2: Enter 0.50 as your lot size

Step 3: Set leverage to 1:100

Result: Notional value = 0.50 x $100,000 = $50,000. Margin required = $50,000 / 100 = $500.

Why this matters: If your account has $2,000 and this trade locks up $500 in margin, you only have $1,500 of free margin left. If you open another trade of the same size, you will have used $1,000 (50% of your account) in margin alone. Knowing this helps you avoid overexposure and margin calls.