GER40 Margin Calculator
Indices
Margin is the portion of your balance your broker sets aside while a GER40 position is open — it isn't a fee or a cost, it's held and released back to you when the trade closes. This calculator uses GER40's own real contract size and margin rate rather than a generic leverage assumption.
How is required margin calculated for GER40?
Say a trader has a $10,000 account and opens 1.00 lot of GER40 long (buy) at 25,330.55, with a 2.00% margin requirement.
Free margin — what's left available for other trades — is $10,000 minus $5,693.04, which is $4,306.96. Margin level (equity divided by used margin) starts at 175.7%.
What is the difference between margin and leverage?
Leverage is usually quoted as a ratio set by your account (like 1:100) — a cap on how large a position you're allowed to open relative to your balance, not a target. Margin is the actual dollar amount reserved for a specific position: on this $10,000 account, one lot of GER40 ties up roughly $5,693.04 in margin, an effective leverage of about 28.5:1 — typically far below the account's maximum allowed leverage.
What is a margin call and how do I avoid one?
Now say price moves 152 points against the position, to 25,178.55.
Margin level has dropped from 175.7% to 145.6%. If it keeps falling toward your broker's stop-out threshold (commonly 50-100%, broker-dependent), positions start getting force-closed automatically, starting with the largest loss — a margin call is the warning that usually comes before that. Keeping free margin well above zero, not just at the moment you open a trade, is what avoids this.
Conclusion
This math only holds if 10 units per lot and a 2.00% requirement are actually your own broker's real numbers for GER40 — margin requirements vary by broker and can change with volatility. Always confirm your own platform's real figures (Market Watch, then Specification) before relying on a suggested margin number for a real trade. See what margin actually is and how brokers use it, Wikipedia's entry on margin in finance for the underlying concept, and a real two-position MT4 example showing free margin in practice.
Contract specification
Point value and minimum lot step vary by broker on index/CFD instruments — a mismatch here is a common, avoidable cause of an unexpectedly large loss. Confirm this instrument's contract specification in your platform before sizing a real trade.
Frequently asked questions
Why might my broker's margin requirement differ from this calculator's default?
Margin requirements are set per broker and can change with volatility, account type, or regulatory tier.