Margin & Leverage Calculator

What margin is

Margin is the good-faith deposit a broker locks up while a leveraged position is open. It is not a fee, and it is not the most you can lose. Leverage is what lets a small deposit control a much larger position: at 1:30, $1 of margin backs $30 of exposure. Required margin is that exposure divided by the leverage, and the broker releases it the moment you close the trade. The figure most traders are after is how much of the account a position ties up and how much exposure that buys, which is what this calculator returns from the instrument, lot size and leverage you enter.

The formula

notional = contract size × lots × price
required margin = notional ÷ leverage
effective leverage = notional ÷ account equity

Notional is the full face value of what you control. One standard lot of EUR/USD at 1.09 is 100,000 × 1.09 = $109,000 of exposure. At 1:30 leverage the broker asks you to post 109,000 ÷ 30 ≈ $3,633 as margin, and returns it when you close. The notional is denominated in the quote currency; we convert margin to your account currency using daily ECB reference rates, so it reads in the units you actually fund the account in.

Effective leverage is the number that matters. Post that $3,633 margin from a $10,000 account and your effective leverage is 109,000 ÷ 10,000 ≈ 11x, even though the account is capped at 30x. An 11x position loses 11% of your equity for every 1% the price moves against you. The headline leverage sets a ceiling; the effective figure is what you are actually risking, and it is entirely your choice within that ceiling.

The same maths across forex, crypto, CFDs and futures

Required margin works the same way on every leveraged market; only the contract size and the leverage cap change. A standard forex lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, so the margin scales with the pair's price. A crypto position's notional is just quantity times price, and exchange leverage runs far higher than regulated forex, which is why liquidations arrive fast, so check the level on the liquidation price calculator. Share and index CFDs use the contract size the broker sets and often quote a flat percentage margin (5% is 1:20) rather than a round leverage number. Commodities and futures post an exchange-set initial margin per contract instead of a simple divide. Pick the instrument here and the contract size is pre-filled; edit it to match your own broker's schedule.

Using it to stay solvent

Margin is where leverage stops being abstract. The lower your effective leverage, the more room the position has to move against you before a margin call force-closes it. Traders who blow up rarely do so because their analysis was wrong once; they do so because effective leverage was so high that ordinary noise triggered liquidation before the thesis could play out. Size the trade with the position size calculator, confirm the pip math with the pip value calculator, and use this page to check that the resulting effective leverage leaves you a survivable buffer.

The honest limits

The arithmetic is exact, but your broker's margin schedule is the final word. Regulated retail brokers cap leverage (commonly 1:30 on major forex, less on volatile pairs), while offshore and crypto venues go much higher. Many use tiered margin, where larger positions require a higher margin percentage, so a big trade can tie up proportionally more than a flat divide suggests. Required margin is also not the same as maintenance margin, the lower level your equity must stay above to avoid liquidation, and some brokers raise margin overnight or over the weekend. Treat the figure here as the baseline your broker builds on, and read effective leverage, not the headline cap, as your real risk.