What are leverage and margin?
Leverage lets you control a position bigger than your cash — at 30:1, $100 of margin controls a $3,000 position. Margin is the slice of your cash the broker reserves while the position is open.
The mechanics: open a 10,000-unit EUR/USD position at 30:1 leverage and roughly 1/30 of the position's value is set aside from your cash as margin. The rest of your cash stays free. Close the position and the margin comes back, plus or minus your profit or loss.
The catch is symmetry. Leverage multiplies gains AND losses by the same factor: a 1% move on a 30:1 position is a 30% move on your margin. This is why leveraged trading is where most beginners blow up real accounts — and why it's exactly the thing worth practicing on virtual money first, where a stop-out teaches the same lesson for free.
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Educational content, not financial advice. Poshkan is a paper-trading simulator — all money, trades, and returns are 100% virtual.