In comparison to other markets, Forex’s leveraged trading rules are fairly liberal. For example with the equities market traders generally have to pay around 50% of the price of the contract. As you can see, the opportunities are not the same. What this means in practical terms, is that a trader can trade or ask a ‘lot’ worth $100,000 even if they only have $1,000 in capital when the leverage ratio is 100:1. The extra $99,000 would be borrowed or leveraged.

The option of leveraged trading is an option that Forex allows that gives those with less capital a change to invest beyond their means. It might be used if a trader does not have the funds in their own account to make the large trade that they want to make, or if a trader did not want to risk their own capital. The benefit of investing more money that you have really just gives Forex traders the potential to make much more money on the Forex market. It should be used with wisdom since the larger your investment, the larger the risk is also.

The reason that Leveraged trading is especially useful in Forex trading is that very often the shift in currency rates is only very subtle. At times, the Foreign Exchange market only sees very slight shifts in currency rates. When a currency rate shifts only slightly when a small investment has been made on it, the return can only be very small. Although it is fine to invest just small amounts of money, a small shift in rates will only give you small returns. By leveraging your trade and investing larger sums of money, investors have a chance to earn larger revenues.

Reading leverage rates is fairly simple. If you have been given a leverage rate, the first number in the ratio is the leverage and the second number is the margin. When you see the ratio 100:1, the number 100 represents the fraction that the lender will pay and the number 1 represents the fraction that the investor will pay.