Leverage is the increased trading power that is available to margin account holders. Leverage can enable you to get the most out of your investments by being able to trade large positions and committing just a portion of the trade value as an initial deposit. Leverage is expressed as a ratio (for instance, 1:100 or 1:500). Here, for every $100 deposited into your margin trading account, you can enter trades worth $10 000 or $50 000 respectively. Leverage can be applied to both long (buy) and short (sell) positions.