L' effet de levier

L' effet de levier multiplie la somme engagée lors d' un trade. Les bénéfices et les pertes vont par conséquent être proportionnellement plus importants.

L' effet de levier est très souvent utilisé sur le forex car, bien que ce marché soit assez volatile, les cours ne varient pas de plusieurs % par jours. Sans effet de levier, le risque est aussi faible que les gains éventuels. 

Ce sont les brokers qui décident de l' effet de levier maximal que les traders pourront user. Cela va pour la plupart de 50:1 ( ou x50 ) à 1000:1 ( ou x1000 ).

Par exemple, si votre broker propose un effet de levier 200:1, et que vous décidez d' investir 50€, la somme réelle investie sera de 10 000€ ( 200x50 = 10 000 ). Cela veut aussi dire que le broker participe pour 9 950€ dans cette somme.

Heureusement, la pratique est sécurisée : il est impossible de perdre plus que le montant de la balance. Si jamais les cours sont défavorables et les pertes abyssales à cause d' un grand effet de levier, le broker va automatiquement couper toutes les positions pour que le compte ne passe pas dans le négatif. C' est ce qu' on appelle l' appel de marge.
 
L' effet de levier est donc un excellent moyen d' augmenter ses bénéfices ( particulièrement pour les ordres à court terme ), mais potentiellement dangereux si le risque est mal contrôlé.

The Less Known Evil of the Leverage

Trading with leverage is extremely popular among the Forex traders. High leverage is considered dangerous because of the risks associated with the fast moving money and poor money management tactics practiced by the majority of the traders. Besides the well known danger of multiplying your losses, there is another evil hiding behind the leverage, which can wipe your trading account easily.

High leverage is advertised by many brokers. Some traders believe that the higher their leverage is the faster they will become rich and the Forex brokers that offer ridiculously high leverage are even praised. But in fact, there is a very practical and mercantile reason for the Forex brokers to offer high leverage — higher earnings.

The higher is the leverage the more money is paid by the trader to the broker in the form of the rates spread. The value of the pip that trader wins, loses or pays as a spread depends on the leverage. With 1:100 leverage a 2 pips spread for the 1 standard lot of the USD based currency pair is worth $20. That’s not a big amount if you have $100,000 account, but if your total trading account is just $2,000? That’s 1% lost despite the fact if you win or lose this position. With 1:10 leverage that spread would worth you only $2. Without leverage the spread payment to your broker would be as low as 20 cents.

Remember that the leverage comes with a price, which is quite high and which is often overlooked by the traders. If you want to learn trading profitably on a real account, try to the leverage as low as possible. Switch to the higher leverage only if you really know what you are doing. Don’t try to become rich quick with the help of the leverage. It won’t allow you.

Forex Leverage and Trading with Margin

What is leverage in Forex trading? Every on-line Forex broker offers trading with certain leverage, which usually varies from 1:2 to 1:500 with the most popular being 1:100. Leveraged trading is also called margin trading, because you only need to have a margin to back your position while the rest is offered by your broker. Margin trading is considered to be more risky, but it also offers high-yielding opportunity which is sought by many Forex traders. If you trade on Forex without leverage you have to spend a big deposit to open a position — you’d have to deposit $100,000 to open a position of 1 standard lot. When you trade with a leverage you can use just a fraction of that money to open the same positions — the rest of the money is «borrowed» from the Forex broker. That means that with just $1000 and 1:100 leverage you can open $100,000 positions and gain $10 from each pip of difference you gain. Of course, you’ll also lose $10 for each pip if the price goes against you. Remember that your margin goes for margin requirement and is held by the broker for the whole period of time while your position is opened. That means that your available margin on account declines usually by 100% of the margin required for holding the position — e.g. $1,000 for $100,000 position on 1:100 leverage. Don’t forget that your position opens with a little floating loss caused by the broker’s bid/ask spread. That means that if you had only that $1,000 in account your position would be immediately closed out by margin call. So, always remember to keep enough available margin to cover your losses, because your broker won’t be losing its own money, it will close your positions instead, if the free margin level falls critically low.

Examples:

1. With 1:500 leverage and $1,500 in your trading account you can open a position of 5 standard lots and still have $500 left for loss toleration. But with each pip of loss costing you $50 your position will be automatically closed when its loss reaches 10 pips. After that you have $1,000 remaining in your account.
2. With 1:50 leverage and $10,000 in your account you open 1 standard lot position and $2,000 from your account goes for margin. $8,000 left is enough to hold 800 pips of loss.
3. With 1:2 leverage and $100,000 in your trading account you can open 1 standard lot position with $50,000 secured as margin and $50,000 left to tolerate up to 5000 pips of loss prior to margin call.