School of Pipsology Leverage example query

Hallo. Greetings from Berlin.

As this is my first post, wanted to say a huge biggup to the creators of the School of Pipsology. I have read a couple of “entry-level” FX books previously, and found them challenging. Having gone through the school and had the concepts explained in layperson terms, I am now able to understand the previously mentioned books, and actually start the process of mastering (I hope) trading. So thanks.

Following my initial read-through, I am now going back through key areas of the course with a paper and pen to really drill down into concepts and cement my understanding before I start demo-trading.

In the lesson “Low Leverage Allows New Forex Traders To Survive” there is an example I have a query with:

Example #1

You open a mini account with $500 which trades 10k mini lots and only requires .5% margin.

You buy 2 mini lots of EUR/USD.

Your true leverage is 40:1 ($20,000 / $500).

You place a 30-pip stop loss and it gets triggered. Your loss is $60 ($1/pip x 2 lots).

You’ve just lost 12% of your account ($60 loss / $500 account).

Your account balance is now $440 .

5% required margin on two mini lots is $1000, no? (10,000 mini lots x 2 = 20,000. 5% of 20,000 is 1,000)

So in this example, you could not even open this trade, as your account balance is only $500.

If i am correct, sorry for being pedantic. If i am incorrect, what am I missing?

Thanks

It’s 0.5% margin requirement (MR) or 200:1 leverage ratio.

10,000 mini lots x 2 = 20,000
0.5% = 0.005
20,000 * 0.005 = 100

What a dickhead ha. Missed that all important period mark before the 5.

Thanks Pippo!

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I agree, pipsology made a lot of concepts crystal clear for me also in my learning phase.