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A margin call is the warning a broker gives when your account no longer has enough money to support your open trades. If you do not add funds or close trades, the broker closes them for you at the stop-out level.
Every open trade locks margin. When losses push your margin level below the broker’s call level, often 100%, you get the call. On MetaTrader the account line turns red. Some brokers email or text you. Nothing is closed yet, but you can no longer open new trades.
You have three choices. You can deposit more money. You can close some trades. Or you can wait and hope. If the market keeps moving against you and the margin level falls to the stop-out level, the broker closes trades without asking. In the EU, the UK and Australia that level is 50% of required margin for retail clients. Offshore brokers set their own, sometimes 20%.
A trader with $2,000 opens five mini lots of USD/JPY, locking about $1,650 of margin at 30:1. A 100-pip move against them costs about $330. Equity is $1,670, margin level 101%. Another 10 pips and the margin call arrives. A further 240 pips of loss takes equity to about $840 and the level to 50%. At that point the broker starts closing trades. The trader has lost more than half the account without a single stop loss being hit, because there was none.
Use a stop loss on every trade, size trades so a loss costs 1% or 2% of the account, and keep margin level well above 200%. Our leverage calculator shows how much margin a trade will lock before you open it.
See free margin and margin. The leverage guide shows how fast the level moves at each ratio.
Not by itself. It is a warning. The broker closes trades when the margin level falls further, to the stop-out level.
With negative balance protection, no. Without it, a fast gap can take the account below zero before the broker closes trades, and you owe the difference.
Sources: ESMA, FCA and ASIC retail CFD rules on margin close-out at 50%. Checked 25 September 2026.
Risk warning: trading forex and CFDs on margin carries a high risk of losing money. Most retail accounts lose money. Never trade with money you cannot afford to lose.