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Old 09-19-2007, 03:33 AM
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Re: What leverage is??? How it works??

Hi Nishant

$1133 is too small to be trading a whole lot, even a half lot would be stressful.
Opening a 1 lot position would take out $1000, leaving $133, but your pip margin would normally take another $10 per pip, depends on the pair, but there is only 13 pips = $130 (typically) to cover pip margin plus drawdown before you get a margin call.

If you trade half lots, entry costs you $500 plus $5 typically per pip of pip margin, say $10 in EURUSD for example, you then have $490 or about 49 pips of drawdown before you get a margin call. But you may need to read your suppliers rules to find out what call limits they apply.

If your supplier uses a 25% margin limit that might be nearly $300 on a $1200 balance and you probably are "allowed" to spend only $900 when opening a trade. So a 1 lot trade might get "insufficient funds" but a 1/2 lot might work.

Any balance below $2500 makes for stressful trading even using just half lots for me. It has been said that nobody has been known to successfully trade a 200:1 account long term, but maybe that is just talk, I don't know. I believe it would be frustratingly slow to trade with and the temptation to overtrade would crash the account for most people. It is said that the average trade lasts 1 to 4 hours and to spend 2-8 hours working for like $20, maybe, is maddening.

Leverage is very much a two edged sword, you need some leverage yet it is also the thing that kills most peoples balances I suspect. I am uncomfortable trading 1 lot on a $5k balance, I have become aware that it is tighter to trade with than it seems. You don't have to get far below $5k before drawdown frightens you and then you start becoming too nervous to leave a trade running. Close out on $20 plus or minus and find the pip margin eats your equity away when you trade like that. Leverage can be a stress mine field.

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