One of the biggest reasons why the forex market is exciting and accessible to small retail traders is because of the industry’s high leverage options. Leverage gives a trader the ability to increase the potential return on an investment but also it increases the potential risk.
hello
Yes indeed, leverage is a double-edged sword. It can shave your trading. All new trading should very careful
My broker hotforex offer high leverage but I prefer trading safer so I only take 1:100 leverage. With that leverage, I can leave my trades stay longer with market movement.
Leverage is leverage. I have access to 500:1 through my broker but my trading plan only calls for 20:1. Just because you have it doesn’t mean you need it
Not at this point in time for me. Even though it is beneficial, I preferred low leverage for now. Too risky especially when the percentage of winning is less than losing.
But as other have stated, it is very beneficial when you are on the roll. 
To reduce risks from high leverage you should cut the number of your market entries. When I feel high risk with low market probability I am seeking for the moment of breakout or important news release. This is plain of strategy that I use in my trading. Scalping method is incompatible with high leverage because you are risking big amount of money for small reward.
Leverage is great, but what many seem to ignore is that high leverage does not equal higher risk as long as you remain constant on your risk management. It will impact your trades of course, but let’s say you run a small $10,000 account (I know to many that is a big account, but trust me you are not even scratching the surface here) and you are willing to risk 3% per trade which would be $300. It does not matter if you have leverage of 1:1 or 1:1,000…you will only risk $300. As I said leverage does impact your trades of course, but those who often associate high leverage with big losses and blowing your account are not implementing it properly.
Don’t blame the tool for your own lack of ability to use it properly.
+1. A poor tradesman always blames his tools as they say. Leverage regardless of how you use it, won’t blow up an account. Only you the trader are capable of doing that.
Also people get confused with Maximum Leverage offered by your broker, such as 100:1, and Actual Leverage used on the trade in question which may be less than 10:1.
Well, since this is the “Newbie Island” I should say that you should avoid high leverages…
just like what last bear said, leverage wont matter as long as you follow your risk management. and i do avoid high leverage, i do not own a 10k account but hopefully will in a couple of months (cross fingers)
It might not be a few months for me. But that will be my goal to own and keep a 10k account. 
I edited my original post but it has somehow posted up twice & I can’t delete this one.
I’ve edited it again to state this so please see the next one. Apologies!
[QUOTE=“TheLastBear;661361”]Leverage is great, but what many seem to ignore is that high leverage does not equal higher risk as long as you remain constant on your risk management. It will impact your trades of course, but let’s say you run a small $10,000 account (I know to many that is a big account, but trust me you are not even scratching the surface here) and you are willing to risk 3% per trade which would be $300. It does not matter if you have leverage of 1:1 or 1:1,000…you will only risk $300. As I said leverage does impact your trades of course, but those who often associate high leverage with big losses and blowing your account are not implementing it properly. Don’t blame the tool for your own lack of ability to use it properly.[/QUOTE]
This pretty much says it all. Money Management is key in this so you need to define your risk & calculate the correct position size for your stop-loss & that’s that. The leverage in the trade shouldn’t be too relevant.
In my opinion, take the higher leverage if it’s going but that’s only to do with maximising your free margin which if you’re using good MM, then it shouldn’t be an issue anyway.
- Define your risk.
- Find your entry, exit & stop-loss.
- Calculate your position size.
- Place trade/order.
Do NOT do #4 if you haven’t done ALL the other points!!!
EDIT: I just read another thread with the title “Plan Your Trade & Trade Your Plan” & to me, that statement hits the nail in the head.
If you are scalping you need high leverage otherwise it is not worth doing tho.
Leverage allows you to open the same position as normal while requiring less margin to maintain that position. High leverage leaves your account with more margin to prevent a margin call.
some friend advice me to use a lower leverage, as the initial balance goes up. some trader with 100k balance would only use 1:50 leverage, even i used to 1:500 leverage on armada markets but not for over 1000 usd intitial deposit, when go higher said 5000 usd, i used 1:200. low leverage is more like a stealth stop loss level for your order, low leverage restrict your active trade (by lost size), as the lower it is the higher margin requirement for each trade.
Leverage to me is like the longer ski’s at the lift. Great for the future when I am MUCH better at it, but something I need to work towards to use properly.
I, too, agree.
In fact some systems may require more leverage. I’ve never needed more than 50:1, but some day it is possible that I will risk more than 1% of my account per trade and require more leverage to do that. Can’t do that with USA brokers, though.
Leverage is one of the advantages of forex. With leverage the trader have assess to more money to trade and also yield large profits. But the use of high leverage comes with high risk and it takes an experience trade to be able to manage it .