Margin Calculator
Margin is the part of your equity a position ties up while it is open. It is not a cost and it is not deducted. It stops being reserved when you close.
Enter the four figures and the margin follows.
- Position value
- Enter your figures
- Margin rate
- Enter your figures
- Margin required
- Enter your figures
Position value is trade size multiplied by contract size multiplied by price. Margin required is that value divided by the leverage. Both come out in the currency the price is quoted in, so a result on a pair priced in US dollars is a US dollar figure. If your trading account is held in another currency, the platform converts it.
What each field wants
Trade size is in lots. Most symbols start at 0.01.
Contract size is how many units of the instrument one lot represents. A standard forex lot is 100,000 units of the base currency. Everything else varies, and the figure for a given symbol is in its specification on the platform.
Price is where you expect to open. Margin is calculated from the price at the moment the position opens, so a different fill gives a slightly different figure.
Leverage is written as the second half of the ratio. For 1:500, enter 500.
Reading the result
Position value is what you are controlling. Margin required is what you have to have free to control it. A 1 lot EURUSD position at 1.0850 is $108,500 of position value, and at 1:500 that needs $217 of margin.
Both figures come out in the currency the price is quoted in. If your trading account is held in something else, the platform converts, and the rate at the time applies.
Leverage at XBTFX is tiered, so treat this as an estimate
This calculator applies one leverage figure to the whole position. Real leverage on your account steps down in bands as the position grows, and the bands are per symbol. A large position is margined in pieces, each at its own rate, which comes out higher than a single top band rate suggests.
Symbol Specifications has the bands and works an example through them. For small positions inside the first band the two agree. For large ones they will not.
Why the number matters
Free margin is equity minus used margin, and it is what you have left to open anything else or to absorb a loss. Tie up too much of it and an ordinary move against you starts to matter, because margin level falls as equity falls. The margin call and stop out calculator takes it from there.