Margin
Margin is the minimum amount of funds, expressed as a percentage, that you will need if you want to open a position and keep your positions open.
If you trade on a 1% margin, for instance, for every USD 100 that you trade, you need to put down a deposit of USD 1. And so, in order to buy 1 standard lot (i.e. 100,000 of USD/CHF), you need to maintain only 1% of the traded amount in your account i.e. USD 1,000. But how can you buy 100,000 USD/JPY with only USD 1,000? Basically, margin trading involves a loan from the forex broker to the trader.
When you carry out a forex transaction, you don’t actually buy all the currency and deposit it into your trading account. Practically speaking, what you do is speculate on the exchange rate. In other words, you estimate how the exchange rate will move, and you make a contract-based agreement with your broker that he will pay you, or you will pay him, depending on whether your estimation has proved to be correct or wrong (i.e. whether the exchange rate has moved in your favor or against your initial speculation).
If you purchase a USD/JPY standard lot, you don’t need to put down 100,000 USD as the full value of your trade. Instead, you will have to put down a deposit that we call margin. This is why margin trading is trading with borrowed capital. In other words, you can trade with a loan from your broker, and that loan amount depends on the amount you initially deposited. Margin trading has another big advantage: it allows leverage.
As you can see in our example, your initial deposit serves as a guarantee for the leveraged amount of 100,000 USD. This mechanism ensures the broker against any potential losses. Moreover, you as a trader are not using the deposit as payment, or to purchase currency units. Your broker needs a so-called good-faith deposit from you.
Margin is the minimum amount of funds, expressed as a percentage, that you will need if you want to open a position and keep your positions open.
If you trade on a 1% margin, for instance, for every USD 100 that you trade, you need to put down a deposit of USD 1. And so, in order to buy 1 standard lot (i.e. 100,000 of USD/CHF), you need to maintain only 1% of the traded amount in your account i.e. USD 1,000. But how can you buy 100,000 USD/JPY with only USD 1,000? Basically, margin trading involves a loan from the forex broker to the trader.
When you carry out a forex transaction, you don’t actually buy all the currency and deposit it into your trading account. Practically speaking, what you do is speculate on the exchange rate. In other words, you estimate how the exchange rate will move, and you make a contract-based agreement with your broker that he will pay you, or you will pay him, depending on whether your estimation has proved to be correct or wrong (i.e. whether the exchange rate has moved in your favor or against your initial speculation).
If you purchase a USD/JPY standard lot, you don’t need to put down 100,000 USD as the full value of your trade. Instead, you will have to put down a deposit that we call margin. This is why margin trading is trading with borrowed capital. In other words, you can trade with a loan from your broker, and that loan amount depends on the amount you initially deposited. Margin trading has another big advantage: it allows leverage.
As you can see in our example, your initial deposit serves as a guarantee for the leveraged amount of 100,000 USD. This mechanism ensures the broker against any potential losses. Moreover, you as a trader are not using the deposit as payment, or to purchase currency units. Your broker needs a so-called good-faith deposit from you.
