Margin call
The point where your account can no longer support open positions and the broker closes them for you.
The point where your account can no longer support open positions and the broker closes them for you.
Margin is the deposit locked against a position; brokers require that it stays above a maintenance threshold, typically 50% of the initial requirement. When floating losses push your equity below that line, a margin call demands more funds - and if none arrive, the broker closes positions automatically, converting a paper loss into a realised one at the worst available price. Stop-out levels vary by broker and by instrument, so the exact trigger belongs in your broker comparison, not in a general rule.
The only reliable defence is distance, not speed: size positions so that a plausible adverse move - not an extreme one - leaves margin intact. Chasing a margin call by adding funds repeats the original sizing error with new money, while reducing size after one admits the position was never affordable. Brokers that publish stop-out levels and hedge during gaps are materially safer than those that quote a single headline leverage number.
Worked example
You hold a one-lot EUR/USD long with $1,000 deposited at 30:1. The broker's stop-out is at 50% of maintenance margin: once floating losses leave roughly $500 of usable margin, the position is closed automatically - long before you decide to close it yourself.
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