Forex Margin Trading As a Method of Leverage

A forex margin account is used by a forex trader when he wishes to invest into a position which requires a much higher financial investment than that which is currently available in the account of the trader. This is one of the unique advantages of the forex trade market wherein the traders are able to conduct transactions in currencies of worth which is much higher than the amount available in the forex account. Unlike the stock market and the equity market which offer little or no leverage to the trader, the forex market offers a leverage of 100:1 to its trader, implying that if a trader who has $1000 in his forex account decides to trade with a forex margin of 1% then he would be in a position to trade up to $100,000.

Forex margin trading is usually carried out through the broker and in order to indulge in this form of trade one needs to entail the services of a forex broker who offers margin trading as a part of a bigger package deal. This is owing to the fact that the concept of trading on forex margin is based on acquiring a short term loan from the broker for the purpose of indulging in trade and in return paying him a certain percentage of profits. Therefore, one first needs to open an account with the broker, deposit a certain amount of finances in it and then use forex margin trading to gain leverage and make a foray into the actual forex market.

Although forex margin trading is considered to be an advantage of forex trading, a word of caution here would be pertaining to the proverbial two sides of the same coin. This implies that a forex trader might well be aware of the fact that if he can use the leverage option effectively, he stands to make phenomenal profits but at the same time if his investments turn out to be loss making then the extent of financial losses which would be incurred would also be manifold. This is evident from the fact that there are many people who complain of having lost out heavily due to forex trading and this is usually the case when people are misinformed about the market and make an educated use of the forex margin option.

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