Margin Calculator: Five Account Numbers, Defined · South Africa
FxPro provides trading calculators so you can work out margin, pip value and potential profit or loss before placing a trade.
Open FxPro Account →A margin calculation has only a handful of fields, and most of using one is knowing which of them you supply and which come back. You supply the instrument, the volume in lots and the leverage; the calculator returns the position value and the required margin. The rule behind the second figure at FxPro is position size divided by leverage, so at 1:200 the margin is 0.5% of the position and at 1:100 it is 1% — the same arithmetic whatever the instrument. Required margin is not a cost: it is the part of the account set aside while a position is open, and it is released when the position closes. The five account numbers underneath — Balance, Equity, Margin, Free margin and Margin level — restate one position five ways rather than adding five new facts. Look up the entry you need: FxPro's margin, pip, profit and loss and swap calculators all read the same way, and all of them live inside the platforms.
Measured contract values for your calculations
Read live from FxPro’s MT5 Raw+ feed — the contract size, tick value, lot limits and average daily range behind any margin, pip-value, stop-size or profit calculation:
| Instrument | Contract size | Tick value (USD) | Min lot | Max lot | Avg daily range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 100,000 | $1.00 | 0.01 | 500 | 41 pips |
| GBP/USD | 100,000 | $1.00 | 0.01 | 500 | 50.2 pips |
| AUD/USD | 100,000 | $1.00 | 0.01 | 500 | 40.6 pips |
| USD/CAD | 100,000 | $0.72 | 0.01 | 500 | 63.7 pips |
| USD/JPY | 100,000 | $0.65 | 0.01 | 500 | 128.7 pips |
| XAU/USD (Gold) | 100 | $1.00 | 0.01 | 500 | 10591.6 pips |
Tick value is the cash change per minimum price move, per standard lot; the 14-day average daily range helps you size stops and targets. Account stop-out levels (measured): margin call at 10%, stop-out at 0% — confirm the live values in your terminal.
Work out your margin
Margin = position size ÷ leverage. Approximate, for USD-quoted forex pairs (1 standard lot = 100,000 units); margin is shown in USD and varies with the live price. Your exact margin appears in your FxPro platform.
FxPro trading calculators
- Margin calculator — how much margin a position requires
- Pip calculator — the value of a pip in your account currency
- Profit/loss and swap calculators for trade planning
- Available inside the FxPro platforms
Plan before you trade
Use the calculators alongside our spreads and swap rates pages to estimate your total trading costs.
Open FxPro Account →Fields you supply, fields that come back
Supplied. Instrument, volume in lots, leverage, and sometimes a price. Each one is a decision rather than a reading, and each one can be wrong: a volume typed off the lot step, or a leverage that is the advertised maximum instead of the account's own setting, produces a tidy answer to the wrong question.
Returned. Position value and required margin. Neither is money leaving the account. The first states exposure, the second states how much of the balance is pinned down while that exposure exists.
The rule underneath. Position size divided by leverage, and nothing more elaborate than that — 0.5% of the position at 1:200, 1% at 1:100. A calculator is faster than doing it by hand, but it is not doing anything you cannot check.
The five account numbers, and what each one restates
Balance and Equity. Balance is the account with open positions ignored; equity is the same account with them counted at the current price. They agree exactly when nothing is open, and the gap between them is simply the open result.
Margin and Free margin. Margin is the part of equity committed to keeping positions open; free margin is the remainder available for anything else. Every new position moves a figure from the second into the first.
Margin level. Equity divided by committed margin, as a percentage. It is the only one of the five that is a ratio rather than an amount, and it is the one the account's risk levels are written against — those levels are listed on our trading conditions page.
Names that shadow each other
Volume, contract size, position value. Volume is what you type, counted in lots. Contract size is what one lot represents, counted in units or ounces and fixed by the instrument. Position value is the two of them multiplied out at the current price. Three numbers, three denominators, one common mistake.
Leverage and margin percentage. The same fact written two ways: 1:200 and 0.5% describe one arrangement, and 1:100 and 1% describe another. Neither form is more correct; forms get mixed inside a single sentence, which is where the confusion starts.
Margin and margin level. One is an amount in currency, the other a percentage. A falling margin level with a rising margin figure is perfectly ordinary, and reading either one as the other is the fastest way to misjudge an account.
Margin fields: supplied or returned
| Field | What it names | Supplied or returned | What to do with it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instrument | The symbol being sized | Supplied | Pick it first: the contract size follows from it |
| Volume | Trade size in lots, not units | Supplied | Check the lot step before typing an odd size |
| Leverage | The ratio the position value is divided by | Supplied | Enter the account setting, not the advertised maximum |
| Position value | Volume times contract size at the current price | Returned | Read it as exposure, not as money spent |
| Required margin | The part of the balance set aside | Returned | Compare it with free margin, not with balance |
| Margin level | Equity against committed margin, as a percentage | Returned by the terminal | Read it against the account risk levels we publish |
Margin is collateral held while a position is open. The costs of a trade are the spread, the commission and the overnight swap, each covered on its own page.