Hi, welcome to the Forum

Leverage is your friend and I always go for as much as I can get, some people may say otherwise but it makes no logical sense not to take as much leverage as you can get. The only way it could hurt you is if you try and open too many positions or too large a position and trade beyond your means. When leverage is used correctly it just means you use the smallest amount of your account size possible to be in a position.** Register Here for Free Membership to see this image/link **

I you are getting around $1 per pip then you must be trading only 0.1 lot size, in order to make 25% on your account you will need 250pips profit at $10 per pip and in order to get that you will need to trade a 1.0 lot size. This is where leverage is your friend because in order to open up a 1.0 lot size with 1:100 leverage you will only us $1000 of your margin/account size, in order to open up a 1.0 lot size with 1:2 leverage you will need to use $50000 of your margin/account size, which you can't do on a $10,000 account.

Theo

I just edited my previous post for you... it was 6am when I answered it the first time :).... and to continue on...

Trade a 1.0 ($100,000) position size and you will win/lose roughly $10 per pip.
With 1:2 leverage you can't do that on a $10,000 account because it would need to use $50,000 of margin.

Leverage doesn't matter if you are smart about it and it is extremely useful

Example: You enter a 1.0 lot size trade on a $10,000 account

1:2 leverage = you need $50000 of your account for margin to be in the trade..
you can't do it

1:50 leverage = you use $2000 of your account for margin to be in the trade..
you have $8000 left to use at $10 pip if the market goes against you for a while.

1:100 leverage = you use $1000 of your account for margin to be in the trade..
you have $9000 left to use at $10 pip if the market goes against you for a while.

1:200 leverage = you use $500 of your account for margin to be in the trade..
you have $9500 left to use at $10 pip if the market goes against you for a while.

1:500 leverage = you use $200 of your account for margin to be in the trade..
you have $9800 left to use at $10 pip if the market goes against you for a while.

*These are the rough USD amounts but not exact!

 

If you are only trading 1-2 pairs then as far as I am concerned I will always take the maximum leverage available because it just doesn't matter, it only helps.

On any pair that goes to the 5th decimal place the last digit is 1/10th of a pip
The pip count is on the 4th decimal place - 1.68501

On any pair that goes to the 3rd decimal place the last digit is 1/10th of a pip
The pip count is on the 2nd decimal place - 140.080

So 1.68820 moving to 1.68685 is a move of 13.5pips

Africatrader said
Hi Theo

Why is it not possible to also enter your stop losses and exit targets BEFORE placing a trade on MT4. Given the unpredictability of the markets that anything can happen anytime at any given moment, how do I protect myself if the market moves against me, while I am busy modifying the trade after placing to enter my stop and exits?

Regards

Lesley

You will need to use the correct software if you want to be protected as much as is possible, here at EFX we use something called the "Trade Manager" for example. ** Register Here for Free Membership to see this image/link **.

You also have some basic tools with the free members download package that can help you manage things and I'm sure there are tools around the web that you can use. I have been using the Trade Manager for so many years that I couldn't imagine trading any other way.