How it works
When you open a leveraged position, you post a fraction of the position’s full size as margin, and your exposure is multiplied by the leverage you chose. Example: you put $100 behind a trade at 5x leverage. Your position is worth $500. A 1% move in the price now moves your money by $5 — which is 5% of your $100. The market moved 1%; your money moved 5%. It multiplies losses exactly the same way: at 10x, a 10% move against you wipes out the margin behind the position — see Liquidation.
Rough numbers — your exact liquidation price is shown on the position screen before you confirm. Each market’s maximum leverage is on its trade screen.
No options chain to learn
If you’ve used options for leverage, notice what’s missing: no strike prices, no expiry dates, no time decay working against you. A leveraged position is just your position, bigger. The mechanics you need to understand are margin and liquidation — that’s the whole list.Using it sensibly
- Know your maximum loss before you trade. On isolated-margin markets, it’s exactly the margin behind the position. On cross-margin markets, losses can draw on the shared balance backing your cross positions. See Margin.
- Always know your liquidation price. It’s shown on the position screen before and after you confirm.
- Pair leverage with a stop loss. Choose your own exit before the liquidation engine chooses it for you — see Take profit and stop loss.
- Start lower than you think you need. The difference between 3x and 20x is the size of the ordinary market move you can survive.