What leverage should a beginner use?
We sell high leverage, so treat this page with the scepticism it deserves — and then read it anyway, because the answer that keeps an account alive is also the answer that keeps a client.
Leverage does not change your risk. Position size does.
This is the part almost every beginner has backwards. Leverage sets the margin locked to hold a position. It does not change what a one-pip move is worth — that is decided by lot size alone. One lot of EURUSD moves about $10 a pip whether your account is at 1:100 or 1:3000.
So higher leverage does not make a trade riskier. It makes a bigger trade possible, and taking that bigger trade is what makes it riskier. The number to be careful with is the lot size, not the ratio.
What high leverage genuinely changes
It frees margin, and it shortens the distance to a stop-out. At 1:3000 a $110,000 lot locks $36.67 instead of the $1,100 it locks at 1:100 — the other $1,063 stays as free margin absorbing drawdown. Used that way, high leverage is a buffer.
Used the other way — as permission to open ten lots instead of one — it removes the buffer entirely. The mechanism is identical; the outcome is opposite.
A practical starting point
Decide the cash you are willing to lose on a trade first. Set the stop where the idea is wrong, not where the loss feels tolerable. Then size the position so those two meet. Whatever leverage covers that position is the leverage you need.
For most people starting out that is far below the maximum. A Cent account is the cheaper way to learn the same lesson: real money, real emotions, positions about a hundred times smaller.
What we would actually tell a friend
Open Standard or Cent at 1:500, trade the smallest size the platform allows for a month, and do not touch Turbo until you can explain — without checking — what one lot of your usual pair costs per pip. The leverage will still be there.
Common questions
What leverage is best for a beginner?
Lower than the maximum, and the question matters less than position size. Leverage sets the margin locked, not what a pip is worth. Start on Standard or Cent at 1:500 and size positions from the cash you are willing to lose.
Is high leverage dangerous?
The leverage itself is not what hurts you — the position size it tempts you into is. The same 1:3000 account is safer than a 1:100 one if you trade smaller and keep the freed margin as buffer. Most people do the opposite.
Which account gives 1:500?
The Turbo account. Standard, Cent and Zero are fixed at 1:500, and VIP at 1:100. Turbo has a $100 minimum first deposit.
Does my leverage change while a position is open?
It can. The step follows your equity, and around the market open and close and either side of major news every account moves to 1:500 forex and 1:300 gold. Keep free margin above the minimum rather than sizing to the edge of your step.