I use Oanda too and depending on the amount of leverage you are setup for will determine how much margin is required. You can change your leverage by choosing "
account", then "
change leverage". If you set it to
50:1 then it will be 2% margin requirement but that is not the default. I think
20:1 is the default. I also change my default unit size under "
Tools", "
User Preferences", then "
Quotes".
For example, if you set your default leverage to
50:1 then change your default unit size to
10000, then you will only require
$393 (2%) margin and you will be trading at
$1/pip (according to your example). Of course you will require more margin if the GBP appreciates against the USD and the quote rises. According to your example it sounds like you are set to
30:1 leverage which requires
3.3333% margin or
$655 in your case. See link for leverage & margin requirements at Oanda. Hope this helps and not confuses you more !
OANDA FXTrade - Margin Rules
Quote:
Originally Posted by trader
Hi all,
This being my first post I think I should firstly thank and congratulate BabyPips on an awesome website. The information here is great and I'm really enjoying learning here.
I have a couple of questions about margin.
I have a USD demo account at Oanda. I am trading GBP/USD. Their margin requirement is 2%.
If I have a $1000 usable margin and I buy 10,000 units of GBPUSD at 1.96607, this is $19660.7 trade value. My margin used is $654.50. What I cant figure out is how to calculate how many units I need to purchase if I want to use, for example $300 of my usable margin. Is it correct thing to do? Or is it more common to buy as many units as possible, leaving just the margin requirement (%2) as usable margin. Or is it best to calculate how much of a movement (pips against you) you will be able to sustain at X amount of units, and go from there?
Thanks in advance
AP
|