How often do you check your margin level while a trade is open?

FTC Community TeamStaff17 Sept 202615 views

Margin level is the number that decides whether your broker warns you or starts closing positions, yet many new traders never look at it until a warning appears.

How often do you check your margin level while a trade is open? — leverage and margin diagram — Leverage: a small margin controlling a larger position

Tell us:

how you check it in your platform
the margin level you try to stay above
whether you've had positions closed automatically, and at what level

How often do you check your margin level while a trade is open? — support and resistance diagram — Price bouncing between support and resistance

If margin and free margin still feel abstract, leverage and margin explained walks through a worked example. There's no such thing as a too-basic question in this thread.

Background: Leverage and margin explained: margin calls, stop-outs and how losses grow

Leverage lets you control a large position with a small deposit. It magnifies losses exactly as much as gains, and it is behind most blown trading accounts.

What does 30:1 leverage mean?

You can control a position 30 times larger than your margin deposit. $1,000 of margin opens a $30,000 position, and gains and losses are calculated on the full $30,000.

What is a margin call?

A warning from your broker that losses have reduced your margin level to a set threshold. If it keeps falling, the broker starts closing positions automatically, which is called a stop-out.

Read the full guide

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