Whats so special about Forex Leverage? Another feature of forex markets that differentiates it from other financial markets is the astronomical level of leverage that is commonplace in the forex world.

Leverage is used to amplify or magnify the equity in your trading account. The usual level of leverage offered by forex brokers is 100:1. Some Forex brokers can offer up to 400:1 leverage on the average retail trading account. The implications of this are mind boggling. No other financial market offers even close to this level of leverage. This means that $1 in a traders forex account can control up to $400 in a currency trade.

Forex leverage is a double edged sword. Forex leverage can both be a very positive feature as well as a very negative one. By definition, leverage is type of financial magnification. While it is true that high leverage magnifies profits, it also magnifies losses equally.

Often, this high level of leverage summarily wipes out otherwise healthy trading accounts. Used with a great deal of caution, however, high leverage of the magnitude found in forex trading can offer tremendous possibilities to the upside as well as the downside.

If you have been trading stocks than you already know that stock brokers only offer leverage ratio of 2:1 on margin accounts. The futures market is better. FCMs (Futures Commission Merchants) offer leverage of 10:1 to futures traders. But in case of forex trading, common leverage ratios offered by forex brokers range from 50:1 on the low side all the way up to 400:1 on the high side. Even on the low side, as compared to the amount of leverage available in other financial markets, the sheer magnitude of forex leverage far eclipses whatever leverage is available in other markets.

Suppose that 400:1 leverage is utilized. In practical terms, what this means to you as a forex trader is that a standard lot of $100,000 for example can be traded in EUR/USD currency pair with only $250 in trading account margin.

In this particular example, $250 in your forex trading account can control a trade of $100,000 using 400:1 leverage. In other words, for every $1, you as a forex trader are in fact controlling a whopping $400.

The fact that a small amount of money can control a large amount of money in forex trading can certainly serve to magnify potential profits. But on the flip side of the coin, the amount of risk involved in using this high level of leverage is also equally magnified.

High leverage trading is aggressive trading that is both characterized by high risk and high reward potential. Therefore, it is advisable to use caution when trading with the substantial leverage common in forex trading.

Dont get hoodwinked by the forex broker advertisements. Too much leverage is dangerous. Even a small movement in the market can be magnified many times by using leverage making large profits for you when the market moves in your favor. Now this is the positive side. You need leverage in forex markets because the size of the currency pair movements is too small. So you need to magnify it with leverage. However, when the market moves even a small amount against your position, your whole trading account can get wiped out. This is the dark side of using too high a leverage.

In the beginning, dont use more than 5:1 leverage in your trading. With experience, you can increase that level to 10:1 or 20:1 but this much leverage would always be sufficient for you.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try 1500 Pips a day Forex Signals. Discover a revolutionary Forex Robot Trading System!

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