ok, you're a little confused on this whole thing. The other posts did a pretty good job of explaining it. I'll continue.
A lot is 100,000 units. No matter how many lots you have, you really aren't investing any money. You're determined loss or gain is dependent on pip value. 100k lot equals 10 bucks a pip. 10k = 1 buck, 1k = 10c
When you open an account, say with 300 bucks, you'll be limited to probably a Micro or Mini account. Micro = 1k, mini = 10k. so that's 10c or 1 buck a pip.
Now for the base of your question.
You don't really invest money, but you do have a specific margin you need to be able to cover before entering in a trade.
The margin is basically a predetermined amount of money you need to have in your account to be able to enter a trade. If a trade goes south and ends up depleting your margin, it'll automatically stop at your margin price.
Here's how you determine margin:
Margin Requirement = Current Price x Units Traded x Margin
You want to buy 100,000 Euros(1 lot) with a current price of 1.35 USD, and your broker requires a 1% margin (I believe 100:1, 50:1 margin would be 2%).
Required Margin = 100,000 x 1.35 x 0.01 = $1,350.00 USD.
So to enter that trade of 100k units of Euro you'd need to have an account balance of at least 1350. But mind you, if you lost money in that trade you might not be able to open another trade because your margin requirement would be higher than your amount of money.
There's a kinda unwritten rule that is if you have between 0 - 1k, use a micro account, 1k - 10k, use a Mini, and 10k+ use a standard...but I've seen people suggest that up to 25k use a mini.
It's all subjective. But anyway, that's how the trade is calculated.
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