Initial Margin
a.k.a. Required margin, Opening margin
The deposit you must put up to open a leveraged position.
In plain English
The deposit you must put up to open a leveraged position.
Initial margin is the ticket price for a leveraged trade. With 1% margin (100:1 leverage), opening a 100,000-unit position needs about 1,000 units of the currency in your account.
After that, you must keep enough equity to meet maintenance margin; drop below and you face a margin call or stop-out.
Worked example
Margin on a mini lot
- You buy 10,000 EUR/USD at 1.0800: a position worth $10,800.
- Your broker requires 3.33% margin (30:1 leverage).
- Initial margin = $10,800 × 0.0333 ≈ $360.
Bottom line: $360 controls $10,800 of currency; every pip is still about $1.
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