> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://countertrade.gitbook.io/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://countertrade.gitbook.io/docs/trading/leverage.md).

# Leverage

What leverage does to a position, how its maximum is set, and the maintenance margin that decides when you're liquidated.

Leverage multiplies both your gains and your losses. You set it per position in the terminal's **Leverage** control before you place the order — and the higher you set it, the smaller a move against you needs to be to liquidate the position.

## How leverage works

Leverage decides how much market exposure a slice of your paper balance controls. At 10x, 1,000 paper USDT of margin controls 10,000 USDT of exposure; at 20x, the same 1,000 controls 20,000. Your paper balance doesn't grow because you picked a higher number — what changes is how far the market has to move before that position's margin is gone.

You choose leverage in the terminal's **Leverage** control; the header shows the current value, for example **10×**. The lowest setting is 1x. The maximum is not one fixed number — it depends on the market and on the room:

* Each market has its own ceiling. The largest markets, like BTC and ETH, allow the most; others allow less.
* A room can set its own cap, below the market's ceiling.

The control only offers the rungs allowed for that market in that room — whichever of the two limits is lower — so under normal use you can't pick a leverage the engine would reject. The backend stays the final authority: an order whose leverage is over the room's maximum is rejected with **Selected leverage exceeds the room maximum.** and nothing is placed.

## Maintenance margin and your liquidation point

Each position reserves **initial margin** — the slice of your paper balance backing it, equal to the position's value divided by your leverage. A 20,000 USDT position at 20x reserves 1,000; the same position at 50x reserves 400.

A position is liquidated when its **equity** — that initial margin plus its current unrealized profit or loss — falls to its **maintenance margin**. The maintenance margin is a small percentage of the position's value, and that percentage is set by your leverage:

| Leverage   | Maintenance margin | Roughly how far the price can move against you first |
| ---------- | ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| up to 20x  | 2.5%               | \~2.5%                                               |
| up to 50x  | 1%                 | \~1%                                                 |
| up to 100x | 0.5%               | \~0.5%                                               |

The last column is the intuition: a position is liquidated once the price moves against it by about **(1 ÷ your leverage) minus the maintenance rate**. At 5x that's roughly a 17.5% move; at 20x about 2.5%; at 100x about 0.5%. More leverage buys more exposure and leaves far less room before liquidation.

The terminal shows a **liquidation price** on each open position as a reference point. The real trigger is the equity-versus-maintenance check on the live mark price, not a fixed number — because the maintenance margin moves with the price. Under **Cross** margin, positions don't each get their own liquidation price; the whole cross pool is checked together (see [Isolated and cross margin](/docs/trading/isolated-and-cross-margin.md)).

## Example

Say a room starts you with 10,000 paper USDT and you open a 1,000 USDT position at 20x. That margin controls 20,000 USDT of exposure.

A 5% move in your favor is +1,000 paper USDT — you double the value of that position. A move against you bites much sooner. At 20x the maintenance margin is 2.5% of the position's value — 500 USDT — so the position is liquidated once your loss reaches 500, which is only about a **2.5%** move against you. You don't get to the full 5% loss that would erase the whole 1,000 of margin; liquidation happens first.

The same position at 5x controls only 5,000 USDT of exposure and has far more room: its maintenance margin is still 2.5% of value, but its initial margin is 20% of value, so the price has to move roughly 17.5% against you before it's liquidated.

## The risk you are choosing

Leverage cuts both ways, and the losses land as hard inside the room as the gains. The paper balance you burn is gone for the rest of that battle, even though it isn't real money. Choosing high leverage is choosing to be liquidated by a smaller move.

A position liquidation force-closes one position but your account keeps trading; if your whole account's equity is exhausted that's full account liquidation and the room is over for you — see [Full account liquidation](/docs/trading/liquidation.md).

Leverage also interacts with your margin mode. Under **Isolated**, only the margin on that one position is at risk. Under **Cross**, positions share your account's margin pool, so a losing leveraged position can draw down the balance backing your others.

## Related

* [Isolated and cross margin](/docs/trading/isolated-and-cross-margin.md)
* [Position liquidation](/docs/trading/liquidation.md)
* [Rejected orders](/docs/trading/rejected-orders.md)