Managing multiple open positions: what's your system?
Three positions in profit, one against you, margin level moving, news approaching — the multi-position trader manages a portfolio, not just trades. Without a system, attention scatters and mistakes multiply.
What's yours?
- how you track all open positions at once
- the rules for adding or cutting across the book
- the multi-position mess you learned from
The correlation guide and margin guide cover the two structural risks.
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.
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