What Is Margin Call?

Margin call: When your trading account does not have enough funds to sustain open losing trades. The broker will then close all your positions automatically one by one until the account shuts down completely. You could have an account with a $5 000 balance but still end up with an account with zero balance in an instant. It happened to me, you can read all about it Here.

Forex trading can deceptively appear as the easiest thing ever whereby one only needs a cellphone and technical indicators to confirm some lines and that’s it. Because of that notion, most people are venturing into Forex with high expectations to profit from it but not enough information of what is really needed from them. One has to be a realist and know their abilities and limitations when it comes to Forex. Fortunately though, it is a skill that anyone can learn, as long as there’s willingness.

One of the most painful things a trader can experience is margin call. Majority of Forex traders have had this unpleasant experience, yours truly included. That experience does not only leave you shocked but extremely ashamed and embarrassed. Below are the 3 ways to avoid margin call.

1. Mind Your Margins

Having a live trading account with no clue of what a margin is, was my biggest downfall. Knowing all the other details on my platform, like the balance (which is really not that important now that I am well-informed) neglecting what I now think is the most important part, your margin, free margin & margin level. You don’t want to deplete your free margin because that’s what gets your account to margin call. Know what gets allocated to each trade. That is golden information that you need to understand the most.

2. Avoid Bigger Lot Size

There is absolutely nothing wrong with trading a bigger lot size as long as your account can handle it. In fact, in Forex trading, size does matter. A bigger lot size allows you to make bigger profits (and bigger everything else such as losses, which is something that can be controlled with the right coaching and mindset)

Knowing whether your account can handle it or not, lies in the margin for each lot size that you trade. This is the part that I emphasise the most in my private coaching, as I believe it forms a bigger part of money management. I also try by all means to simplify this in a way that makes it easier for my mentees to understand it like a business cost without bombarding them with lot size calculators and a whole lot of complicated systems. I am a simple girl who believes in simplicity.

3. Avoid multiple trades

Because most people do not have a clue of what really causes margin call ( I think I have tried to explain that and I hope you now have a slight idea) they usually just open as many trades as possible hoping to maximise the chances of making more profits. Opening more trades simply means that you’ll use more margin and increase the chances of depleting your free margin which will eventually lead to margin call, should those trades go to bigger losses.

No matter how good your trading strategy is, if your money is not well managed, you are playing a losing game. The last point that I want to get across is that the internet is your main tool in Forex trading. You cannot really do much without good connection. The markets do not care if your internet is slow. If you have live trades, be sure you have good internet connection especially if you are a day trader. Thank you for stopping by. I hope you find this post valuable. If you do, kindly share with your peers so it can reach as many people as possible who are looking for practical Forex tips.