GLOSSARY · RISK
What is the martingale strategy in forex?
Martingale is a position-sizing method that increases size after a loss, on the reasoning that a win will eventually recover the entire sequence at once.
What it means
Doubling after every loss guarantees that the first win recovers everything plus one unit — provided the account can fund the sequence. Ten consecutive losses require a position 1,024 times the original, which no retail account can support.
Why it matters
This is why martingale systems produce beautiful equity curves for months and then a single vertical drop to zero. The curve is not evidence the method works; it is evidence the terminal sequence has not arrived yet. Every martingale account eventually meets one.
What this changes in practice
It is worth naming plainly because a large share of the EAs sold on marketplaces are martingale or grid systems with the mechanism described in euphemisms — "smart recovery", "averaging", "no stop loss needed". If a product cannot show you its stop loss, it is telling you where the risk went. Ours risks a fixed percentage and never increases after a loss.
Related terms
- Grid tradingGrid trading places a ladder of orders at fixed intervals above and below price, accumulating po…
- Risk per tradeRisk per trade is the fraction of account equity a single position is allowed to lose if its sto…
- Risk of ruinRisk of ruin is the probability that an account falls below a defined threshold given a strategy…
- Stop lossA stop loss is a resting order that closes a position once price moves a set distance against it…
- Deposit loadDeposit load is the share of account equity committed as margin at the busiest moment in the rec…
Further reading
Educational information only, not financial advice. Trading leveraged products carries substantial risk of loss. Last updated 2026-09-09.