Leverage 1:200 Forex Brokers

Written by Miro Nikolov

Miro Nikolov

Miro Nikolov is the co-founder of TradingPedia.com and BestBrokers.com. His mission is to help people make profitable investments by giving them access to educational resources and analytics tools.

, | Updated: September 15, 2025

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• Jump to:
• Main features of the best 1:200 Leverage Forex brokers
• What is Leverage
• Leverage and Margin
• Margin Calls
• How Leverage Works
• Is It Suitable for You
• Advantages and Disadvantages
›

If you are interested in trading with leverage of 1:200, it is crucial to find a broker that is both reputable and suited to your trading goals. With this in mind, our team of experts has prepared a shortlist of brokers, highlighting some of the leading regulated FX trading brands offering 1:200 leverage.

1. 

   Plus500 US

   Rating: 4

   This content applies only to Plus500 US and clients from the United States. Trading futures involves the risk of loss.

2. 

   eToro

   Rating: 4.2

   61% of retail investor accounts lose money

3. 

   Fusion Markets

   Rating: 4.8

   74-89% of retail's CFD accounts lose money

4. 

   FP Markets

   Rating: 4.9

   73.85% of retail investor accounts lose money

5. 

   Global Prime

   Rating: 4.7

   74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

6. 

   Pepperstone

   Rating: 4.4

   75.5% of retail investor accounts lose money

The following table offers further insight into the features and characteristics of the best brokers suitable for trading with leverage of up to 1:200. We have ranked them based on several key factors, including regulation, spreads and commissions, Trustpilot ratings, trading instruments, trading platforms, customer support and payment methods.

Our team has thoroughly evaluated all brokers listed below using TradingPedia’s exclusive methodology.

Main features of the best 1:200 leverage forex brokers

Leverage is a crucial component in online trading and is used both by brokerage companies and individuals. Traders typically use leverage to increase their trading capital far beyond their available balance, which enables them to significantly boost their returns from successful trades.

Leverage is available when trading with different asset classes, including currency pairs, commodities, stocks, indices and cryptocurrencies. Options and futures can also be traded with leverage.

We must stress, however, that leverage can have adverse effects on traders’ balances. Although it has the potential to significantly boost profits, the same is true of the losses one could incur when a trade goes south.

Essentially, leveraging your positions is not necessarily a guarantee of trading success. Thus, one should exercise great caution when using excessive leverage ratios like 1:200. The rule of thumb is that the higher the leverage, the greater the risk for the forex trader.

What is leverage?

Leverage is borrowed capital that enables traders to open positions larger than the available balance of their trading accounts. It is also called trading on margin and is interest-free in foreign exchange trading.

Leverage is presented in the form of ratios such as 1:2, 1:5, 1:30, 1:100, 1:200 and the like. The exact ratio available depends on the asset class, the broker and its licensing.

There are two types of leverage:

• Operating leverage: This is used to measure the extent to which a company can grow its operating earnings by increasing its revenue. Operating leverage is determined by the ratio of fixed to variable costs a given company implements. A company uses higher operating leverage when it has more fixed than variable costs, and vice versa.
• Financial leverage: This refers to using debt to purchase assets. If an investment is said to be highly leveraged, this means it has less equity than debt.

Leverage gives traders more exposure to the financial markets. Using a leverage ratio of 1:200, for example, grants a trader the ability to enter a trade of $200 for every dollar they have available in their live account’s balance. In short, you can trade with 200 times more money than you have.

However, the earning potential of a trade neither increases nor decreases simply because you open a leveraged position. Leverage merely lowers the amount of equity a trader uses to open the position.

The use of leverage is not restricted solely to retail traders who lack sufficient capital. On the contrary, professionals also partake in margin trading and typically have access to far higher leverage ratios of up to 1:200 or even 1:500.

Leverage and margin

Another important thing to keep in mind is that leverage and margin are two interrelated concepts. Leverage reflects the ratio between the amount of available funds a trader has in their balance and the amount of capital they can trade with.

Margin, meanwhile, refers to the funds you need to have in your live balance to open a leveraged position with a broker. The brokerage uses margin to maintain your open position. Margin is typically presented in the form of percentages that represent the full amount of a trade, such as 2%, 1%, 5% and the like.

The required margin is based on the size of the trader’s position and the financial instrument they invest in. The relationship between margin and leverage is inversely proportional, as is reflected by the following two formulas:

• 1 / Margin = Leverage. If the margin required by a broker is 0.02 or 2%, it follows that the maximum leverage in this case will be equal to 1 / 0.02 = 50, or 1:50.
• 1 / Leverage = Margin. Conversely, a leverage ratio of 1:200 would yield a margin of 1 / 200 = 0.005, which, when expressed in the form of a percentage, amounts to 0.5%.

Used margin is another important concept forex traders must familiarise themselves with. It reflects the amount of funds the broker must lock up in your trading account to maintain the positions you currently have. There is also usable margin, which represents the overall available amount you have in your balance to open new positions.

It is also possible to calculate the margin for a specific position by multiplying the required margin by the number of traded units and the quoted price. For example, you want to open a long position for the EUR/USD pair and purchase 10,000 units of the EUR currency. The brokerage firm requires a margin of 0.5%, which is commonly the case for leverage ratios of 1:200.

The price for this pair quoted by the broker is 1.09, which is to say you must pay $1.09 for each EUR you purchase. Therefore, the required margin will be equal to 10,000 EUR x 1.09 x 0.5 = $5,450. Suppose you had $6,000 in your available balance before you opened this position. If so, your remaining equity would amount to $6,000 – $5,450 = $550.

Margin calls – why and when do they occur?

Brokers send margin calls to notify traders that the amount of funds in their balance is insufficient to cover potential losses from open leveraged positions. This occurs when a trader’s equity drops below their used margin.

By sending you a margin call, the broker demands that you transfer extra money to your balance so that your account can return to the minimum maintenance margin. If you fail to do this, the broker will close your open positions to prevent your balance from dropping even further.

How leverage works in forex trading

Foreign exchange traders rely on leverage to expand their initial investments and trade larger volumes of currencies with borrowed money. The use of leverage is widespread in the forex community because the currency markets generally offer some of the highest leverage ratios investors can hope for. Currency traders can sometimes benefit from leverage as high as 1:200 or even 1:500 for major forex pairs like GBP/USD and EUR/USD.

This borrowed capital in the form of leverage is provided to traders by the brokers that handle their live accounts. To use leverage when trading currency pairs, the trader must first sign up for a margin account, preferably with a reliable and regulated brokerage firm.

Most brokers typically offer higher leverage ratios for major currency pairs and lower ratios for exotics and minors. Some of the most common ratios for majors are 1:30, 1:200 and 1:500. The ratios depend on where the broker is regulated, whether the trader is a retail client or a professional, and the size of the client’s position.

From a regulatory perspective, leverage is often proportionate to market volatility. The more volatile a given market is, the lower the leverage the broker will offer. It is for this reason that cryptocurrency positions can usually be leveraged at a ratio of no more than 1:2 or 1:5 as opposed to the 1:30 and even 1:200 leverage ratios offered for major currency pairs in some cases. When trading indices, leverage of more than 1:20 is seldom available.

Forex traders love to leverage their positions because this enables them to increase both the size of their trades and their potential earnings.

Suppose a person has deposited $1,000 into their forex account but wants to open a position that exceeds this amount. If their broker supplies leverage of 1:200, this would allow the trader to open a position as large as 2 lots, with one standard lot amounting to $100,000.

The trader will extend their initial investment from $1,000 to $200,000 for this position with a leverage of 1:200, or two standard lots of $100,000 each. This way, the person can trade up to $200 for every dollar of equity they have available in their account.

A leverage ratio of 1:200 is often offered to traders with mini accounts, where mini lots are traded. One mini lot is equal to 10,000 units of the base currency, or USD in this case. Sometimes, leverage can depend on your account’s deposit level. For instance, some trading sites may offer a leverage ratio of 1:500 for deposits under $1,000 and a ratio of 1:200 for deposits ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.

Is 1:200 leverage suitable for you?

It is essential to specify that high leverage ratios like 1:500, 1:100 or 1:200 are neither suitable for nor available to all traders. As already stressed, leveraging your positions carries significant financial risks, which is why retail investors are normally recommended to refrain from using excessive leverage, even when available. If a trader is not competent or careful enough, they might end up incurring massive losses.

The leverage ratio you use should be proportionate to your risk tolerance. The trading strategy you implement also plays a role in what leverage works best for you. The rule of thumb is to use lower leverage if you intend to hold your positions open for a longer period.

In contrast, when you have a short-term position that would remain open for only minutes or seconds, you are looking to extract maximum earnings from it within a very short time. In this case, you will want to use as much leverage as possible to ensure you generate high profits from minuscule market fluctuations.

The above is why high leverage ratios like 1:200 are typically used by scalpers and traders who rely on price breakouts. Position traders, on the other hand, usually utilise low leverage (with ratios ranging between 1:5 and 1:20) or use no leverage at all. By means of comparison, scalpers typically employ leverage from 1:50 to 1:500.

Maximum leverage restrictions vary widely between jurisdictions. In countries like Belgium, for example, trading on margin and leveraging your positions are outright prohibited by law. The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) outlawed the distribution of leveraged OTC derivatives to local retail customers in 2016.

It is also important to mention that trading with leverage of 1:200 is impossible if you are a retail trader based in a member state of the European Union, at least if you want to trade with an EU-regulated brokerage.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has imposed the following leverage ratios on CFD products:

• Forex majors: 1:30
• Forex minors, major indices, gold: 1:20
• Commodities (excluding gold), non-major equity indices: 1:10
• Individual equities: 1:5
• Cryptocurrencies: 1:20

Meanwhile, the maximum allowed leverage for retail customers in the United States is 1:50, while that in Japan is restricted to 1:25. If you live in any of these countries but want to trade with leverage of 1:200, you will have no other option but to register with an offshore broker that is licensed in another jurisdiction and features higher leverage caps.

Advantages and disadvantages of using 1:200 leverage

The key advantage of using leverage of 1:200 lies in enabling you to extend your trading volume far beyond your available capital. That is, you can increase your position by 200 times. The same goes for the profits you generate from successful trades, which are also magnified thanks to leverage.

However, the risks associated with using such a leverage ratio are an undeniable downside. Leverage also magnifies the potential losses of a given position.

It is crucial to remember that when you leverage your positions, you essentially trade with borrowed money that you have to return to your broker if the market moves against you. The reality is that the majority of retail investors who trade on margin lose their money, with the percentage of leverage victims ranging between 60% and 90% across different brokerages.

To prevent incurring huge debts, you should always ensure the broker you trade with offers negative balance protection. This will safeguard you in case your balance goes in the red after a stop-out, preventing you from losing more than you have deposited. Your account will be automatically reset to zero in such a scenario when negative balance protection is in place.

Another downside of 1:200 leverage is its limited availability in certain jurisdictions. In Europe, for instance, retail leverage is capped at 1:30, meaning you must become a professional in order to trade with leverage of up to 1:500 or resort to using offshore brokers. The same applies to traders in the UK and Australia.