Since you don’t have any open positions, there is no margin being “used”. If however you had open positions that were currently loosing money, this would decrease the Equity and in turn reduce the Free Margin. Required Margin is the amount of money that is set aside and “locked up” when you open a position. If you don’t have any open positions, then the Free Margin is the SAME as the Equity. If you don’t have any open position, calculating the Equity is easy.
Learn how to trade forex in a fun and easy-to-understand format. When trades are open, the platform will also clearly indicate the Margin Level, represented as a percentage it is the relationship between the Equity and used Margin in the trading account. Know how profit or losses affect your account balance. Your account balance is the cash you have available in your trading account. We introduce people to the world of trading currencies, both fiat and crypto, through our non-drowsy educational content and tools.
What is Free Margin?
Used Margin is the total amount of margin that’s currently “locked up” to maintain all open positions. Learn why it’s important to understand how your margin account works. Free Margin is the money that is NOT “locked up” due to an open position and can be used to open new positions. Assuming your trading account is denominated in USD, since the Margin Requirement is 4%, the Required Margin will be $400.
Aside from the trade we just entered, there aren’t any other trades open. Floating losses decrease Equity, which decreases Free Margin. Floating profits increase Equity, which increases Free Margin.
If you have open positions, and they are currently profitable, your Equity will increase, which means that you will have more Free Margin as well. Learn about crypto in a fun and easy-to-understand format. To see in real time how the Free Margin changes in the account, why not open a Demo account hereon our website an open some risk-free trades. For this example, let’s assume that since opening the trade the price has moved slightly into our favour causing the position to be at break even meaning the floating Profit/Loss is 0.
You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 82.18% of our retail investor accounts trading Contracts for Differences have lost money within the past twelve months. When markets move against your open positions, your margin level falls.
Let’s now look at an example with an open trade.
If it ever falls close to a fixed percentage agreed with your broker, say 40%, you’ll be notified with a Margin Call. If you were to have open positions in the trading account that were currently profitable, this would increase the Equity which in turn would increase the Free Margin. Assuming we have a trading account with a 10,000 USD balance and no open positions, we can use the above formula to work out our Free Margin. Since you don’t have any open positions, you don’t have any floating profits or losses.
We also saw that if the Margin Level on the trading platform dropped to 80% this would trigger a Margin Call as a warning that the funds in the account are running low. Subsequently if the Margin Level continued to fall further, at 50% this would trigger the Stop Out in an attempt to protect the account from going into negative balance. Click here for further reading on Margin Call or herefor Stop Out. Equity is your Balance plus the floating profit of all your open positions.
The amount that EXISTING positions can move against you before you receive a Margin Call or Stop Out. Used Margin, which is just the aggregate of all the Required Margin from all open positions, was discussed in a previous lesson. Determine significant support and resistance levels with the help of pivot points. Find the approximate amount of currency units to buy or sell so you can control your maximum risk per position.
Trading Tools
Due to a migration of services, access to your personal client area is temporarily disabled. Margin represents the amount of money that you need in order to enter a trade. The websitetraders-trust.comis operated by TTCM BM. Now we know our Equity we now need to know our Used Margin. As in this example there are no open positions the Used Margin will be 0. Let’s assume that the price has moved slightly in your favor and your position is now trading at breakeven.
We encourage all traders to carefully review and analyze the third party offerings and claims. Do not accept as fact unexamined assertions or claims. All materials offered to the trading public on our website are offered as general market commentary, are not an offer to trade in any market and do not constitute investment or trading advice. Tier1 expressly disclaims any liability, without limitation, for any losses that arise directly or indirectly from the use of or reliance upon information provided to the trading public on our website. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage, 82.18% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
You will be responsible to ensure your account has sufficient margin to sustain your trading activity. If you are classified by us as a Retail Client, you will henceforth be subject to an ESMA-mandated close out rule on loss making positions when your minimum required margin level decreases to 50%. As a Retail Client you will however be protected by Tier1FX from incurring a negative balance in your trading account. Tier1FX (“Tier1”) offers references to third party information providers as a service to the trading public. Unless specifically expressed, Tier1 does not endorse the methodologies, ideas, opinions or recommendations of these third parties.
We’re also a community of traders that support each other on our daily trading journey. Our gain and loss percentage calculator quickly tells you the percentage of your account balance that you have won or lost. Exinity Limited is a member of Financial Commission, an international organization engaged in a resolution of disputes within the financial services industry in the Forex market. Trading CFDs involves a great risk of losing your invested capital. If your open positions are losing money, your Equity will decrease, which means that you will also have less Free Margin as well.