Leverage In Forex Trading Explained

Leverage is a major component of forex trading and is one of the main reasons why so many people are drawn to forex trading in the first place. Leverage basically allows you to trade positions far in excess of your initial trading capital which means you can potentially make vast profits from forex trading.

However it should be pointed out that leverage works both ways. Whilst you can earn a lot of money very quickly by making winning trades, you can also lose money very quickly by using leverage. This is not uncommon either. There are lots of forex traders who have blown their account completely just through one single losing position, and all because they over-leveraged themselves.


Let me explain in more detail how leverage actually works when trading forex and why it is potentially so dangerous.

If you visit the website of any forex broker you will usually be presented with appealing offers such as 'trade forex with 1:200 leverage' or 'open an account with us and enjoy 1:400 leverage'. These offers are designed to appeal to forex newbies who are drawn to brokers who offer high leverage rates because it means they can trade large positions whilst only risking a small amount of capital. In these examples 200 and 400 times their trading capital respectively. In other words $1000 can be used to trade a position worth $200,000 or $400,000.

Of course ultimately it's the forex brokers themselves that benefit from such leverage because they know that the majority of forex traders will end up losing money, and by enabling their traders to overcommit themselves it means they make more profits in the long run. Plus even if they do not overcommit themselves they know that even a small move can result in large losses for highly leveraged traders.

So as a forex trader, you should be wary of signing up to brokers who offer high levels of leverage. It usually ends up benefiting them more than it benefits you. Your major concern should be finding a top quality reputable company that is reliable even during busy periods of the day, offers tight spreads, and is fully licensed and regulated by the relevant authorities. Leverage should not really be an issue at all.

Your aim is to make money so to do this you should use strict money management rules. This means employing a tight stop loss and only risking a very small percentage, ie 2 or 3%, of your trading capital on any one trade. This will mean that any losses you may incur are kept small in relation to your total bankroll which means you can stay in the game and live to fight another day.

The thing to remember is that you can still make substantial profits from forex trading without over-leveraging yourself. High leveraged positions should be reserved for gamblers and we all know that gamblers using end up losing money in the long run.

By: James Woolley

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