No denying that , and I love the way you put the point across , however I suppose unlike children who grow up, few new traders , or most , would stay in the infant stage all their trading life
I think 1:500 is an absolute maximum and should give you plenty of wiggle room. Just because you have the available margin doesn't mean you have to use it all. I always use a calculator to calculate my lot sizes based around fixed risk % and my SL. If you are using up all your margin then I would ask if you are practicing good risk management based on your current account size and leverage being used.
Yeah, 100:1 is a lot for newbies. I believe, 10:1 is enough for traders who have just stepped into the world of forex trading.
There is no criterion that you need to follow to ensure that you are using the best possible leverage. It’s all about your risk appetite and that’s what matters the most when you are using leverage. It is entirely up to you whether you wish to use 1:10 or 1:1000.
The lower the better. I know that new traders find it hard to resist using high leverage because it’s one of the quickest ways to grow your account, but as we know leverage can magnify both the profit as well as losses, it is better to be careful while using it.
Its 30:1 in the UK on forex majors, 20:1 on the minors. It gets down to 10:1 on most commodities and 5:1 on equities. Traders can apply for an elective professional account that gets round these but you lose much regulatory protection and you have to have a half million to deposit.
If you are a newbie then you are in the learning phase of your trading journey, so what you can do is, try both on a demo account i.e. higher and lower leverage and analyse that how it is working try to do some analysis and then choose by yourself that what is best for you.
Trading with 100:1 leverage gives the feeling that the trader has a big advantage over the market. In fact, it is not as simple as that. If you do not respect the risks associated with the use of 100:1 leverage, you can end up in trouble very quickly.
According to Bruce Kovner, a successful forex trader, a maximum of 3% of your capital is enough for leverage.