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

FTC Community TeamStaff17 Sept 2026101 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: How to use leverage responsibly: sizing for survival

Leverage multiplies both the gains and the losses, and the account usually learns this before the trader does. Here is how offered leverage differs from used leverage, and how to set yours so a bad week stays a bad week.

How much leverage should a beginner use?

Far less than the broker offers. What matters is used leverage — the position size relative to the account — and beginners should risk about 1% per trade, which usually means micro or mini lots at most.

What is the difference between offered and used leverage?

Offered leverage is the account's maximum, set by the broker and the regulator. Used leverage is what your open positions actually employ. The second number decides whether a move against you is survivable.

Read the full guide

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