GLOSSARY · POSITION SIZING
What is a margin call in forex trading?
A margin call is the broker's warning that equity has fallen to a set percentage of used margin, signalling that positions will be closed if it falls further.
What it means
The trigger is the margin level — equity divided by used margin, expressed as a percentage. Brokers commonly set the warning around 100% and forced liquidation, the stop out, somewhere between 20% and 50%. Both thresholds are in your account specification and both vary by broker and jurisdiction.
Why it matters
A margin call is a symptom, not the disease. By the time it arrives the account is already carrying positions far too large for its equity, and the diagnosis is almost always oversizing rather than a bad trade — no correctly sized position can produce one.
What this changes in practice
Automated systems reach margin calls in a characteristic way: not through one large trade, but through several simultaneous positions in a correlated direction, each individually reasonable. This is exactly why a concurrent-position cap matters more in a bot than in discretionary trading, where the human would have noticed.
Related terms
- MarginMargin is the portion of your balance the broker sets aside as collateral while a leveraged posi…
- Free marginFree margin is account equity minus the margin currently locked up by open positions — the amoun…
- Stop outA stop out is the broker's forced closure of open positions once the margin level falls below a …
- LeverageLeverage is the ratio between the notional value of a position and the margin required to hold i…
Educational information only, not financial advice. Trading leveraged products carries substantial risk of loss. Last updated 2026-08-11.