Margin calculator
This margin calculator shows the deposit a provider will hold while a leveraged position is open. Enter the pair, the price, the number of lots and the leverage available on your account. The result is the required margin in US dollars: money that stays in your account but cannot be used for anything else while the trade is open.
The formula
Required margin = notional value ÷ leverage
For pairs where the US dollar is the base currency, such as USD/JPY, the notional value in dollars is simply lots × 100,000.
Worked example (illustrative numbers)
You want to buy 0.5 lots of GBP/USD at 1.2700.
- Notional value: 0.5 × 100,000 × 1.2700 = $63,500.
- Margin at 30:1 (the UK and EU retail cap for major pairs): $63,500 ÷ 30 = $2,116.67.
- Margin at 20:1 (the cap for non-major pairs, gold and major indices): $63,500 ÷ 20 = $3,175.
What the margin calculator figure means
Margin is not the maximum you can lose. It is the deposit that allows the position to stay open. Your profit or loss is based on the full $63,500 position, so a 1% move changes its value by $635, about 30% of the margin at 30:1.
Compare the required margin with your total balance. The rest of your balance, the free margin, absorbs losses. When losses reduce your equity to half of the required margin, a UK or EU provider must start closing positions for retail clients. With a $3,000 balance and the position above at 30:1, that point would be reached after a loss of roughly $1,940, or a move of about 3%.
Higher leverage does not make a trade cheaper; it only makes the deposit smaller and the account more fragile. Offshore firms offering hundreds-to-one leverage allow positions so large that a small move can close them. Use the position size calculator to choose a size based on risk, then check the margin here.