Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and former senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia. Gordon Scott has been an active investor and technical analyst or 20+ years. He is a ...

A margin call occurs when the value of securities in a brokerage account falls below a certain level, known as the maintenance margin, requiring the account holder to deposit additional cash or ...

What is a maintenance margin? Maintenance margin, also known as variation margin, is the amount of capital that must be available in your account to keep a leveraged trade open. It ensures you always ...

Initial margin is the upfront collateral required before a trader can enter a margin position. It acts as a safety net for brokers, ensuring that the trader has enough skin in the game to cover ...

Brokerage accounts allow you to purchase securities using cash or even by borrowing against your holdings. These two types of accounts are called a cash account and a margin account. Both accounts ...

Leverage can be a powerful thing, allowing borrowers to take on bigger projects than they otherwise could and to potentially generate bigger returns on their initial investment stake. But leverage, ...

In a cash account, all trades must be settled in cash on the settlement date, which occurs two days after the trade date for most securities. A margin account, however, is quite different. If you ...

With a margin account, an investor can increase their purchasing power (and amplify their gains and losses) using extra money borrowed from their brokerage. A margin account is a special type of ...

While open-end mutual funds cannot be purchased on margin, ETFs and closed-end mutual funds can often be purchased using a margin account. What Is Margin? Why Can't Mutual Funds Be Purchased on ...

Maintenance margin, also known as variation margin, is the amount of capital that must be available in your account to keep a leveraged trade open. It ensures you always have enough money to fund the ...