How do I calculate my margin required for a trade?

To calculate the required margin for your trade, you need to determine a few things:

1. The value of the trade
2. Your account leverage

Here is an example:

• Let's say a trader has a USD account and you want to trade one mini lot (10K GBP/USD), that is worth the equivalent of 10,000 GBP. 
• We need to convert this number of GBP to a value of the base currency of the trader's account, in this case USD. 

Since FXCM has fixed marginrequirements, we use $1.90 for our exchange rate on GBP/USD. So, these 10,000 GBP is worth -- 10,000 * $1.90 = $19,000. 

Now that we know the value of the trade, $19,000, you can use a leverage profile to determine the amount of margin required to open a trade. 

Let's say the leverage is 400:1, in this case $47.50 is required in margin ($19,000/400 = $47.50)