Trader Toolkit · Visualiser

Leverage, visualised

Exposure and risk move together. See by how much.

Jump to the calculator

Leverage lifts, and leverage drops:see how near the margin stops.

Your figures

Result

Equity

Account currency

Leverage (1 : n)

Exposure for each unit of equity.

Price move against the position

A move in the instrument’s price, not in equity.

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Equity lost on a 0.5% adverse move

▼ 5,000.00 USD

50% of the equity; 5,000.00 USD would remain

Exposure

1,000,000.00 USD

100 times the equity

The whole bar is the exposure. The dark segment is the equity behind it: one part in 100. The rest is carried on margin, yet the profit or loss on the whole bar falls on the dark segment alone.

Adverse price move, from 0 to 10%. The shaded zone begins at 1%, where the equity is exhausted at 1:100. The marker is the move you set, 0.5%.

Adverse move that exhausts the equity: 1%
Equity remaining after the move you set: 5,000.00 USD
The same move in favour of the position: +5,000.00 USD

The same equity at other leverage
Leverage	Exposure	Move that exhausts the equity
1:1	10,000.00 USD	100%
1:10	100,000.00 USD	10%
1:50	500,000.00 USD	2%
1:100	1,000,000.00 USD	1%
1:200	2,000,000.00 USD	0.5%
1:500	5,000,000.00 USD	0.2%

SimulationA calculation on the figures you entered. Higher leverage is not better leverage: it shortens the distance to the loss of the whole equity. Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade.

How it works

Formula

exposure = equity × leverage; equity change = exposure × price move

With your numbers

1Exposure (equity × leverage)10,000.00 × 100 = 1,000,000.00 USD
2Change in equity for a 0.5% price move1,000,000.00 × 0.5% = 5,000.00 USD
3As a share of equity (leverage × move)100 × 0.5% = 50%
4Adverse move that exhausts the equity (1 ÷ leverage)1 ÷ 100 = 1%

Assumptions

The whole of the equity is used as margin for one position, which is the most exposure that leverage allows. Using less of it means less exposure and a wider margin for error.
Leverage multiplies the effect of a price move on equity in both directions by the same factor. It does not change the likelihood of the move.
A stop out (published at a 30% margin level) would close the position before equity reached zero. In a gap the closing price can be worse, and equity can fall further than shown.
Costs are ignored. No level of leverage is suggested here: the figures you see are the ones you set.

Terms used

In plain language

Leverage changes the size of the consequence, not the odds.

Leverage lets a given amount of equity carry a larger position. The market does not know or care: the price moves exactly as it would have. What changes is how much of your equity each movement is worth.

The clearest way to read any leverage figure is to turn it upside down. One divided by the leverage is the adverse price move that would consume all of the equity behind a fully used position: one per cent at 1:100, a fifth of one per cent at 1:500. A fifth of one per cent is a small move for any market.

The same multiplication applies to gains, and the page shows it, but it is the distance to the loss of the whole equity that shortens as the slider moves to the right.

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Fetching the page

The same equity at other leverage

Leverage

Exposure

Move that exhausts the equity

1:1

10,000.00 USD

100%

1:10

100,000.00 USD

10%

1:50

500,000.00 USD

1:100

1,000,000.00 USD

1:200

2,000,000.00 USD

0.5%

1:500

5,000,000.00 USD

0.2%

How it works

Formula

exposure = equity × leverage; equity change = exposure × price move

With your numbers

1Exposure (equity × leverage)10,000.00 × 100 = 1,000,000.00 USD

2Change in equity for a 0.5% price move1,000,000.00 × 0.5% = 5,000.00 USD

3As a share of equity (leverage × move)100 × 0.5% = 50%

4Adverse move that exhausts the equity (1 ÷ leverage)1 ÷ 100 = 1%

Assumptions

The whole of the equity is used as margin for one position, which is the most exposure that leverage allows. Using less of it means less exposure and a wider margin for error.

Leverage multiplies the effect of a price move on equity in both directions by the same factor. It does not change the likelihood of the move.

A stop out (published at a 30% margin level) would close the position before equity reached zero. In a gap the closing price can be worse, and equity can fall further than shown.

Costs are ignored. No level of leverage is suggested here: the figures you see are the ones you set.

Terms used