Margin Calculator

What is the Margin Calculator?

The Margin Calculator is a costs tool that tells you how much money a position locks up as margin, based on its size, price and your leverage. It answers 'how much of my capital will this trade tie up?' and shows that margin as a percentage of the position's full notional value.

How to use it

1. Enter Position size (lots) and Contract size (units/lot) so the tool knows the full unit count of your trade.
2. Enter the Instrument price and your Leverage (e.g. 100 = 1:100).
3. The calculator computes the Notional position value, then the Required margin, and expresses that as Margin as % of notional.
4. Read Required margin as the capital held aside for this one position and Margin as % of notional as the fraction of the trade's full value you are actually posting.

How it's calculated

Notional position value = lots x contract size x instrument price. Required margin = notional value / leverage. Margin as a percentage of notional = 1 / leverage x 100 (equivalently required margin / notional x 100). So at 1:100 leverage you post 1% of the notional; higher leverage lowers the margin posted but not the size of the position you are exposed to.

Frequently asked

Keep in mind: Required margin tells you what capital is locked up to hold the position, not how much you can lose or how close you are to a margin call; it says nothing about your actual risk, which is set by your stop and size.