Leverage vs. Bonus

A broker can require different margin requirements for larger trades versus smaller trades.

Actual forex bonuses

How Leverage Works in the Forex Market, leverage vs. bonus.

As outlined in the table above, a 100:1 ratio means that the trader is required to have at least 1/100 = 1% of the total value of the trade as collateral in the trading account. Leverage in the forex markets tends to be significantly larger than the 2:1 leverage commonly provided on equities and the 15:1 leverage provided in the futures market. Although 100:1 leverage may seem extremely risky, the risk is significantly less when you consider that currency prices usually change by less than 1% during intraday trading (trading within one day). If currencies fluctuated as much as equities, brokers would not be able to provide as much leverage.

How leverage works in the forex market

Leverage is the use of borrowed money (called capital) to invest in a currency, stock, or security. The concept of leverage is very common in forex trading. By borrowing money from a broker, investors can trade larger positions in a currency. As a result, leverage magnifies the returns from favorable movements in a currency's exchange rate. However, leverage is a double-edged sword, meaning it can also magnify losses. It's important that forex traders learn how to manage leverage and employ risk management strategies to mitigate forex losses.

Key takeaways

Leverage, which is the use of borrowed money to invest, is very common in forex trading.

By borrowing money from a broker, investors can trade larger positions in a currency.

However, leverage is a double-edged sword, meaning it can also magnify losses.

Many brokers require a percentage of a trade to be held in cash as collateral, and that requirement can be higher for certain currencies.

Understanding leverage in the forex market

The forex market is the largest in the world with more than $5 trillion worth of currency exchanges occurring daily. Forex trading involves buying and selling the exchange rates of currencies with the goal that the rate will move in the trader’s favor. Forex currency rates are quoted or shown as bid and ask prices with the broker. If an investor wants to go long or buy a currency, they would be quoted the ask price, and when they want to sell the currency, they would be quoted the bid price.

For example, an investor might buy the euro versus the U.S. Dollar (EUR/USD), with the hope that the exchange rate will rise. The trader would buy the EUR/USD at the ask price of $1.10. Assuming the rate moved favorably, the trader would unwind the position a few hours later by selling the same amount of EUR/USD back to the broker using the bid price. The difference between the buy and sell exchange rates would represent the gain (or loss) on the trade.

Investors use leverage to enhance the profit from forex trading. The forex market offers one of the highest amounts of leverage available to investors. Leverage is essentially a loan that is provided to an investor from the broker. The trader's forex account is established to allow trading on margin or borrowed funds. Some brokers may limit the amount of leverage used initially with new traders. In most cases, traders can tailor the amount or size of the trade based on the leverage that they desire. However, the broker will require a percentage of the trade's notional amount to be held in the account as cash, which is called the initial margin.

Types of leverage ratios

The initial margin required by each broker can vary, depending on the size of the trade. If an investor buys $100,000 worth of EUR/USD, they might be required to hold $1,000 in the account as margin. In other words, the margin requirement would be 1% or ($1,000 / $100,000).

The leverage ratio shows how much the trade size is magnified as a result of the margin held by the broker. Using the initial margin example above, the leverage ratio for the trade would equal 100:1 ($100,000 / $1,000). In other words, for a $1,000 deposit, an investor can trade $100,000 in a particular currency pair.

Below are examples of margin requirements and the corresponding leverage ratios.

Margin requirements and leverage ratios
margin requirement	leverage ratio
2%	50:1
1%	100:1
.5%	200:1

the equivalent leverage ratio as a result of the margin requirement.

As we can see from the table above, the lower the margin requirement, the greater amount of leverage can be used on each trade. However, a broker may require higher margin requirements, depending on the particular currency being traded. For example, the exchange rate for the british pound versus japanese yen can be quite volatile, meaning it can fluctuate wildly leading to large swings in the rate. A broker may want more money held as collateral (i.E. 5%) for more volatile currencies and during volatile trading periods.

Forex leverage and trade size

A broker can require different margin requirements for larger trades versus smaller trades. As outlined in the table above, a 100:1 ratio means that the trader is required to have at least 1/100 = 1% of the total value of the trade as collateral in the trading account.

Standard trading is done on 100,000 units of currency, so for a trade of this size, the leverage provided might be 50:1 or 100:1. A higher leverage ratio, such as 200:1, is usually used for positions of $50,000 or less. Many brokers allow investors to execute smaller trades, such as $10,000 to $50,000 in which the margin might be lower. However, a new account probably won't qualify for 200:1 leverage.

It's fairly common for a broker to allow 50:1 leverage for a $50,000 trade. A 50:1 leverage ratio means that the minimum margin requirement for the trader is 1/50 = 2%. So, a $50,000 trade would require $1,000 as collateral. Please bear in mind that the margin requirement is going to fluctuate, depending on the leverage used for that currency and what the broker requires. Some brokers require a 10-15% margin requirement for emerging market currencies such as the mexican peso. However, the leverage allowed might only be 20:1, despite the increased amount of collateral.

Forex brokers have to manage their risk and in doing so, may increase a trader's margin requirement or reduce the leverage ratio and ultimately, the position size.

Leverage in the forex markets tends to be significantly larger than the 2:1 leverage commonly provided on equities and the 15:1 leverage provided in the futures market. Although 100:1 leverage may seem extremely risky, the risk is significantly less when you consider that currency prices usually change by less than 1% during intraday trading (trading within one day). If currencies fluctuated as much as equities, brokers would not be able to provide as much leverage.

The risks of leverage

Although the ability to earn significant profits by using leverage is substantial, leverage can also work against investors. For example, if the currency underlying one of your trades moves in the opposite direction of what you believed would happen, leverage will greatly amplify the potential losses. To avoid a catastrophe, forex traders usually implement a strict trading style that includes the use of stop-loss orders to control potential losses. A stop-loss is a trade order with the broker to exit a position at a certain price level. In this way, a trader can cap the losses on a trade.

Higher base salary vs. Bonus: which is better and why?

There are many opportunities to negotiate a new salary structure. You get a chance to do this every time you change companies, and also when you change roles within your company or decide to ask for a promotion or raise at work.

So what should you focus on… higher base salary or bonus?

I’m going to walk you through the base salary vs. Bonus debate so that you’ll know what to target next time you negotiate.

We’ll also answer the question of “what is a good bonus percentage?” so you can make sure you’re getting a great bonus if you do receive one.

Higher base salary vs. Bonus – which is better?

In almost all cases, your base salary is more important to negotiate for than other types of compensation in terms of long term importance and value. If in doubt, always negotiate for an increase in base salary above all else.

1. Bonuses are usually calculated as a percentage of your base salary

This means that having a higher base salary will also improve your bonuses in most companies. This doesn’t work in reverse, though; negotiating for a higher bonus does nothing for your base salary now or in the future.

We’ll talk more about the future soon… because when we look at your future earnings potential, we’re going to uncover a couple of even more compelling reasons to go after base salary first when deciding between base salary vs. Bonuses.

2. Base salary implies seniority and higher value to future employers

Job titles vary from company to company. As a recruiter, I’ve seen people earning $160,000 per year with a project manager title, and I’ve seen people earning $120,000 as a senior director.

It depends on company size, industry, and more.

Because of how much job titles vary, recruiters and hiring managers often use base salary to determine your true level/seniority.

As a recruiter, I’ve seen job seekers miss out on an interview because they were deemed too junior for a position due to their current base salary. (we asked for their current compensation in the initial phone call and passed the information to the hiring manager). It’s a shame that good, talented people were judged based on this, but it happened…

…their resume was fine. Their amount of experience was fine. But the hiring team still felt the candidate must be lacking something if they’re only making $XX,XXX at their current company.

And here’s something important to consider: if you’ve negotiated for high base salaries throughout your career, it’s going to be to YOUR advantage to reveal this. It becomes a negotiation tool or piece of leverage when asking that next employer for a high salary… rather than something you’re worried about hiding.

You can use it to command higher pay in your future roles.

The bottom line is: when you talk to a new company, instead of the hiring manager spending hours trying to figure out the intricate details and differences between your current compensation package and his/her company’s compensation package, they’ll just look at A) your base salary if they can, and B) your total compensation.

So the quickest way to imply a high value to future employers is to have a high base salary in your recent roles.

3. Bonuses are less likely to carry over into future job offers

While companies will have a general salary range that they’ve budgeted for a given role, there’s typically some flexibility.

They can bend the rules a bit or make an increase in base salary to accommodate an excellent candidate.

However, as a recruiter, I’ve seen many companies be much stricter on cash bonuses. It’s not uncommon for a company to tell a candidate, “sorry, every employee in this group gets a 10% cash bonus once per year. We can’t change that for you.”

So if you negotiated for a 20% or 30% cash bonus in your last role, you’re out of luck! You’re going down to 10% if you take this new position.

Whereas, a base salary is more likely to carry over; you’ll be able to continue building that throughout your career and negotiate to make sure you’re always taking a step forward in base salary.

And remember – as mentioned earlier, your base salary DOES impact your bonus in most companies. The typical company offers annual cash bonuses as a percentage of your base salary.

Let’s imagine your cash bonus is set at 10%, and cannot be changed.

If you’re earning $100,000, then your cash bonus is $10,000.

But what if you negotiated your base salary up to $115,000? (while doing nothing to your cash bonus).

All of a sudden, that same 10% bonus is $11,500. You put $1,500 more into your pocket as a bonus while also earning that higher base salary. That’s why negotiating for base salary first is a win-win and what I recommend.

What is a good bonus percentage?

A good bonus percentage for an office position is 10-20% of the base salary. Some manager and executive positions may offer a higher cash bonus, however this is less common. Some employers will not offer a cash bonus, and will offer a higher salary or other compensation – like stock options – instead.

Companies are often somewhat strict and inflexible with these bonuses (it’s not uncommon to see an entire group receiving the same bonus percentage, for example, as per company policy).

So don’t get discouraged if the employer won’t budge or allow you to negotiate your bonus percentage; just focus on your base pay instead, as mentioned earlier in the article.

Also, in some cases, employers will offer other bonuses that aren’t connected to your base pay – for example, they may offer profit sharing where you receive a very small percentage of company profits (which can still come out to be quite a bit of money).

Base salary vs. Bonus conclusion:

If you negotiate for base salary, you can continue to build on this in every new job offer… continuing to go upward. And as mentioned above, this will also increase your bonus indirectly, as long as your bonus is a percentage of base salary.

However, if you focus on negotiating for bonuses, you’re running the risk that all the hard work negotiating for a better bonus at your current company might not translate into anything in future jobs. They often have a standard bonus, and that’s what you get.

You can find incremental increases to your base salary throughout your career, in every job change.

You aren’t going to be able to do that for a cash bonus. You can’t usually go to a company and say, “well, right now my bonus is 20%, so I was hoping to get to at least 27% in this job change.” that’s just not how it works, you’ll soon have an absurdly high cash bonus that no company will match.

So that’s why I recommend you negotiate for base salary first and use bonuses and other benefits as a secondary piece to go after once you’re satisfied with base salary, or once you’ve come to a stalemate in the base salary discussion.

Get everything you can in base salary, and then negotiate other pieces like stock options, cash bonus, vacation time, etc. Think of those as a secondary objective, but don’t ever give up base salary if you can help it.

Hold up! Before you go on an interview.

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Bybit review 2021 | leverage trading, fees, bonus and testnet

In this article, we will review bybit, a crypto derivatives exchange that was launched in march 2018 on british virgin island. It has more than one million registered users and focuses on experienced traders. Bybit is easy to use and has a user-friendly interface. It can handle 100,000 transactions per second. Bybit offers perpetual futures with up to 100 x leverage.

Summary

Margin trading with up to 100x leverage.

Three types of order — market, limit, and conditional.

USDT and inverse perpetual contracts.

Quick and safe deposits/ withdrawals.

Robust security management using SSL communication, two-factor authentication, and an advanced mark and index pricing system.

Integration with best trading bot services.

Bybit testnet to know how the platform works before investing real funds.

A user-friendly and intuitive user experience.

Apps available in android and ios to track information on the go.

Referral incentives and affiliate programs to earn passive income.

Insurance fund and mutual insurance for risk management.

A 24/7 extensive customer support.

Take part in the latest bybit 25 BTC christmas competition, earn exclusive bybit xmas hampers, iphone 12 pro, ledger nano X and claim up to $620 rewards! Use this link .

How to create a bybit account? How does bybit work?

To create an account, you have to visit the bybit website and enter your email and password. You will receive a verification code in your registered email. The verification code will be valid for five minutes. Once you confirm it, your account will be created.

Bybit is an entirely anonymous exchange, therefore, know your customer (KYC) is not mandatory.

Bybit leverage

Bybit offers you 100x leverage. You will have to put up a margin of 1% as the initial notional amount. You can adjust the leverage after opening a position, which is not offered by many other exchanges.

Each perpetual contract on the exchange is 1 USD. Bybit also offers futures contracts on ripple and EOS with leverage of 25x.

If you are trading in large volumes and entering sizable positions, the leverage could be less. As your position size increases, your initial margin also increases. You can check the risk limits here. The maintenance margin is 0.5% for contracts irrespective of their size.

Type of orders

Bybit offers three types of orders.

Market order: they are placed at the prevailing market price. They are placed as “bid” if it is a sell and “ask” if it is a buy.

Limit order: they are placed at a specific level away from the market.

Conditional order: once specific levels are reached, it acts as a market or limit order.

You have to define trigger price, leverage, quantity, and direction.

The order is applicable for a certain period, also known as order life. There are three types of order life-

Good-till-canceled (GTC) — these orders are valid until you choose to close them.

Immediate-or-cancel (IOC) — you have to fill them immediately at the best price. The unfilled portions will be canceled. Therefore allowing partial order execution. Hence there is a risk attached that the order may not even execute.

Fill or kill (FOC) — it means no partial execution, orders will be filled completely or not at all.

Bybit contracts

Bybit offers two main types of perpetual contracts inverse and USDT.

For USDT, USD is a base currency, and tether is a stable coin. The collateral value is one dollar, and tether acts as the underlying margin. Bybit offers BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT, LINKUSDT, XTZUSDT, and LTCUSDT.

For inverse contracts, the cryptocurrency acts as the underlying margin. If you are not trading in bitcoin, then it falls under the inverse perpetual contract. They are 1 USD in value. Bybit offers BTCUSD, ETHUSD, EOSUSD, and XRPUSD.

Bybit review: deposits

You can use the bybit fiat gateway to deposit fiat and convert it into BTC, USDT, and ETH. You can enter the desired amount, then you have to choose your preferred service provider. After the completion of the transaction, you can check your balance on bybit’s assets page.

You have to generate a wallet address if you want to deposit crypto directly. You can do the same under the assets section. You have to initiate the transaction once you have the address. It takes some time for this process to get completed. Meanwhile, you can monitor the progress in blockchain explorer.

Bybit withdrawals

You have to click the withdrawal button on the desired asset and enter the wallet address. Then, you have to confirm the transaction using two-factor authentication. Additionally, you need to pay the miner fee, which is a small amount.

All accounts have withdrawal limits though they are not very restrictive.

Bybit also has limits on daily withdrawals to ensure they have funds in their hot wallet. They are 100 BTC and 10,000 ETH. If the funds are depleted, you have to wait for bybit to transfer them from the cold wallet.

Bybit fees

Whenever you are using a cryptocurrency exchange, you will either act as a maker or taker. Makers increase the depth of the order book and provide liquidity. Takers take liquidity off the order book.

Market orders are always executed as takers, while limit orders can be maker or takers. Market orders are immediate orders, whereas limit orders are not immediate.

If you are a taker, you have to pay 0.075%, while if you are a maker, you can earn a 0.025% rebate. Bybit makes 0.05% of the transaction from maker and taker fees.

Spot trading fees are above 0.2%. They are 3 to 15x higher than perpetual contract trading.

You will pay the following fees for futures contracts in bybit.

The financing charge, also known as the “overnight” rate, is directly exchanged between the traders and not bybit. You will either pay the financing charge or receive it.

You are not charged for depositing your funds. You will be charged a miner or network fee while withdrawing your funds, which is relatively small.

You will have to pay a $5 fee for any asset exchange orders for exchanging physical crypto at the spot.

Bybit funding fee

The daily USD and underlying interest is 0.06% and 0.03%, respectively. The fund rate interval is three, which is once every eight hours. The current interest rate is 0.01%. The funding fee is calculated by position value multiplied by funding rate. The interest rate is calculated by USD interest subtracted by underlying asset interest divided by funding rate.

Bybit calculator

Bybit calculator allows you to use your current account information and calculate profit, loss, liquidation, and target price. You can manage your position easily using this. The calculator is available on the top right of the website.

You can calculate the profit and loss, excluding fees using this formula — quantity of contracts (1/entry price — 1/exit price).

Additionally, you can calculate the profit and loss percentage as (profit &loss /open value) * 100% open value: quantity of contracts/entry price.

You can calculate the return of investment(ROI) as the ratio of return on assets to the initial margin used in the position.

Bybit trading bot

3commas has integrated with bybit to provide bybit trading bot that can buy and sell your crypto assets programmatically. You can copy trading strategies from the best portfolios or choose from simple, short, composite, and composite short bots. You just need to link your bybit account to the 3commas trading platform using the API keys.

Bybit testnet

Bybit testnet is for those who want to test the platform before signing up. You can make demo accounts and check how orders work. You can get the demo coins from the testnet faucet. In addition, you can follow this guide to understand the borrowing of demo coins. On the testnet, you will get a minimal amount of bitcoin as it has a release rate of 0.01 BTC per hour.

Bybit review: user experience

Bybit is a user-friendly platform and you can easily toggle between wallets, account management, BTC, and ETH futures market. In addition, you have the trading charts on the left, the order book in the middle, and contract details on the right-hand side. It also offers a night mode.

Leverage is getting rebooted as imdb TV’s first major original series

Amazon’s free streaming service gets an original show

Imdb TV — the amazon-owned free streaming service that’s part of the popular online movie database — is getting its first major original TV series: a reboot of the 2008 TNT crime show leverage, via deadline. The show follows a robin hood-esque group of thieves who steal from the rich to help those in need.

According to dean devlin, who produced the original series and will return as an executive producer for revival, “our new series with amazon studios and imdb TV is a re-imagining of the original premise. While leverage centered on a crusade to avenge the death of a child, this series is propelled forward as a redemption story of misdeeds that need amends.” it’s not clear if the new series will serve as a sequel to the original, which was canceled by TNT in 2012 (albeit, with a finale that left the door open to future spinoffs).

Imdb TV exists in a strange world within the amazon streaming ecosystem. Despite being owned by amazon, with a content team that’s part of the amazon studio organizations, it has no real links to amazon’s prime video service. Instead, it offers a variety of free, ad-supported content.

Despite its position as amazon’s also-ran streaming service, imdb TV offers a wide variety of surprisingly good content, including movies like spider-man, paddington, elf, the big short, and blade runner 2049 and TV shows like white collar, psych, fringe, friday night lights, and, of course, the original leverage.

The new 13-episode leverage show will see most of the original cast return in some capacity: beth riesgraf, gina bellman, and christian kane will be reprising their roles as parker elliot, sophie devereaux, and eliot spencer, respectively, while aldis hodge will return in a recurring role as the team’s hacker, alec hardison.

Notably absent from the list is timothy hutton who previously starred as the lead in the 2008 series; he’ll be replaced by noah wyle as the lead of the new series. Wyle is also set to direct two of the episodes.

Original leverage creators john rogers and chris downey are also set to help out as consulting producers. Kate rorick (who previously worked on another devlin / rogers project, the librarians) will serve as the showrunner for the series.

Forex lot size vs. Leverage

The terms used by participants in the forex market can be confusing for novice traders. But everyone who comes to the exchange to earn money should understand these concepts. Below we will look at such key concepts as leverage and lot size on forex, and find out what pips are.

The article covers the following subjects:

Leverage and lots in forex

LiteForex: Forex Lot Size and Leverage Explanation, Calculator & PDF | LiteForex

Leverage vs lot size are different concepts on forex, but there is a certain connection between them. Let's figure out what are leverage and lots means.

Leverage means that the trader borrows funds from their forex broker or a related third party. With this financial support, they can open trades more effectively than without leverage.

Now let's define the concept of lot on forex.

Lot is a contract measured in base currency units. So the number of lots or portions of a lot determines the size of the opened trade.

The trader sets the volume in contracts when opening a position. Its value can be from 0.01 to 100.

It is important for beginners on forex to remember the connection between the concepts of forex lot size and leverage.

Leverage actually doesn’t affect the size of the contract and its price. However, the concept of leverage plays a significant role in determining the size of a trader's position. The greater the leverage, the more a trader can afford to buy or sell large lots in quantities that are many times greater than their own funds.

What are the pips?

Above we have discussed what lot and leverage are. The connecting link between these two concepts is a pip (short for percentage in point). It represents the minimum fraction of the change in the value of a trading instrument.

In other words, a pip is the standard smallest unit of measure by which a currency quote can change. On the foreign exchange market, 1 pip is usually equal to $0.00001 in pairs with the US dollar.

Oil and stocks, for example, have two characters after the decimal point. So the last (second after the decimal point) figure is a pip for these assets.

Let's look at the concept of a pip through an example. This way we can clearly see the relationship between lot size and leverage on forex. Suppose we have a direct quote of EURUSD at 1.18699. This means that 1 euro is worth 1.18699 USD.

If this quotation grew by one point (up to 1.18700), the value of 1 US dollar would decrease relative to the euro, since now you have to pay 0.00001 USD more for 1 euro.

Even 1 pip of price change has a direct impact on the final value of the trade.

The standard size of one contract for most brokers is 100,000 units. 1 unit of EURUSD will be equal to 1.18699 USD.

Suppose an investor buys 0.1 lots, hence the contract size will be $11,869.9 (100,000 * 0.1 * 1.18699). Suppose the exchange rate of this pair increases by one pip. Then the price of the contract of the same size will be equal to $11,870.0.

So the cost of 1 pip with a 0.1 contract will be equal to 0.1 USD.

An investor can buy much more with leverage. Suppose that our trader uses a 1:100 leverage and can increase the position by 100 times – they will not buy 0.1, but 10 lots. With such a large position, the cost of 1 pip will be 10 USD.

This example clearly shows how leverage affects the value of a pip through trade size. The more leverage, the larger position a trader can open. The larger the position, the higher the value of one point.

What is lot size

Now let's expand our knowledge of lot sizes. We mostly encounter four varieties.

Number of units

Mini (1/10 of standard lot)

Micro (1/100 of standard lot)

Nano (1/1000 of standard lot)

Standard lot is perhaps the most common type of contract on the forex market and among brokers.

Mini lot is called fractional, it is equal to 1/10 of the standard lot size. It’s much less used than the standard lot. This type of contract is mostly used when trading contracts for cryptocurrency. Sometimes it can be encountered when trading on the metals market.

Micro lot is an even rarer on the forex market. This fractional contract is more common among forex brokers that provide access to CFD trading for cryptocurrencies and metals.

Nano lot is mostly found on the markets for raw materials, metals, and cryptocurrencies. This type of contract is extremely rare on the foreign exchange market.

Important! The size of one lot expressed in base units is usually not determined by the client, but by the requirements of the liquidity provider.

We can see through the example of liteforex that there are completely different lot sizes for different asset groups and types of trading instruments. Liteforex uses a standard lot of 100,000 units for currency pairs and a nano lot for gold. If you look at the cryptocurrencies, liteforex offers its clients to trade bitcoin and ethereum in lots of only 1 unit! Detailed information on contract sizes for each trading instrument can be found here.

It should be remembered that the cost of a position depends not only on the number of units in the contract but also on the value of the underlying asset or currency in which these units are expressed.

In the example above, we counted 0.1 lots for the EURUSD pair as 10,000 euro units denominated in dollars. Other instruments are calculated by the same principle.

For example, a position in XAUUSD with a lot of 100 units will be equal to 100 troy ounces in US dollars.

In the same way, for 1 GBPJPY contract equal to 100,000 units, the trade value will be 100,000 british pounds against the japanese yen.

What does all this mean for the forex market participant? Only that by buying cross rates (currency pairs that are not quoted against the US dollar), you are not only betting that the quoted instrument will grow, but also that the value of the quote currency will fall.

It is important for every trader and investor to know all the details of trading a specific instrument.

You can find the most detailed information about each asset in the trader's personal account. It’s accessible even without registration. To do this, go to the "trade" section, select the desired trading instrument, click on "instrument information" and scroll down to the "additional information" widget.

In addition to information about the lot, you can see a lot of useful data there:

The cost of one pip when buying 1 contract for this instrument.

Quoted currency - the monetary unit in which the quote price is expressed. It always comes second in the designation of the pair. So it’s pretty easy to identify. Stocks, oil, indices have no quotation currency in the name of the asset. You can find information on how the asset is denominated in the section “information about instrument”.

Base currency is the currency in which the contract price is expressed and which is traded in relation to the quoted currency.

Size of 1 lot and the currency it is expressed in for this asset. This currency is usually called the base currency.

Leverage set up on your account. If the broker has a leverage set for an asset in the form of % of the margin, you will also see the leverage it corresponds to.

The size of the buy and sell swap and the day of the triple swap. Swap is an overnight fee.

What is leverage

Leverage is a concept very closely related to margin. It is a financial tool that allows traders to trade a much larger position than their own trading account size allows.

You have deposited 5,000 USD to your balance. You have chosen to use 1:20 leverage. Therefore, you can open positions for a total amount of 20 times your account = 100,000 USD.

Want to know more about leverage and how it works? Then read this complete beginner's guide here.

Differences & relationship between leverage and lot size in forex

As we now know, leverage and lot size in forex are different concepts.

Let's emphasize again: leverage does not affect the value of one contract. The standard contract in currency will be one hundred thousand units at any leverage.

However, leverage affects the amount of funds at the trader's disposal. In order to see how the size of the forex lots and leverage affect the real value of the trade, let’s look at the calculation formulas with and without leverage.

With leverage, the trade value will be equal to the amount of margin.

So we see that the size of the contract is directly proportional to the value of the trade. This means with an increase in the size of the lot or its quantity, the value of the trade also increases.

The leverage ratio is inversely proportional to the value of the trade and with an increase in the amount of leverage, the value of the trade decreases.

Important: there are different recommendations for using leverage for different types of trading instruments, depending on the conditions of the liquidity provider the broker works with.

The liteforex broker uses leverage for metals, oil, indices, cryptocurrencies, and stocks. This is a decrease in the trade value by setting the percentage of the margin with. You can find this parameter in the specification of a trading instrument.

For currency pairs, the leverage is set by the trader.

So in order to open a position, depending on the asset, you need either a percentage of its actual value or the amount divided by the leverage set by the trader in their account settings:

US bank business leverage visa signature card: 75,000-point bonus worth $750 cash

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If you’re looking to earn a fat stack of cash for your business, the U.S. Bank business leverage® visa signature card could do the trick. It’s got a 75,000-point welcome offer (worth $750) that you’ll earn after spending $7,500 in the first four months after opening the card. That’s an excellent small business credit card deal that can be redeemed for travel or just straight cash.

This card earns 2x points in the two bonus categories you spend the most in each month and there are nearly 50 categories that qualify. So not matter what your business expenses are, you’re likely to be able to take advantage of the bonus categories.

The information for the U.S. Bank business leverage card has been collected independently by million mile secrets and has not been reviewed by the card issuer.

You can earn even more points if U.S. Bank is your business’ payment processor, we’ll explain more below. (photo by ken wolter/shutterstock.)

US bank business leverage visa signature review

Current bonus

Earn 75,000 bonus points after spending $7,500 in the first four months from opening the account.

Benefits and perks

With this card you’ll earn:

2x points per dollar in the top two categories where you spend the most each month

One point per dollar on all other eligible net purchases

What’s so interesting about this car is that you can earn bonus points in the top two categories you spend in each month and there are nearly 50 categories that qualify. This includes many bonus categories you won’t find on other top rewards credit cards. Here’s a list of the qualifying bonus categories (you can expand the list here to see all the subcategories, as well):

Advertising

Airlines

Apparel and accessory stores

Auto rental and transport providers

Automotive dealers

Automotive parts stores

Automotive repair shops

Cable, satellite, TV, and radio providers

Charitable, civic, and religious organizations

Commercial and home furniture stores

Commercial equipment, parts and supply

Computer service providers

Computer stores

Construction material suppliers

Dental, lab, and medical equipment providers

Department, book and novelty stores

Direct marketers

Discount stores and wholesale clubs

Drug stores and pharmacies

Durable goods providers

Entertainment places

Florist, nursery, and garden stores

Freight and transport services

Funeral homes and crematories

Gas stations and fuel dealers

Grocery stores and supermarkets

Healthcare providers

Home improvement service and supply

Hotels

Industrial suppliers

Insurance providers

Membership organizations

Non-durable goods providers

Non-medical testing labs

Personal service providers

Pet supply stores

Plumbing and HVAC suppliers

Postal and courier service providers

Professional service providers

Publishers and printers

Restaurants

Schools and government

Stationary and office supply stores

Telecom equipment suppliers

Telecom service providers

Utility companies

Veterinarians

Wholesale goods providers

For example, if your top purchases in a single month are on accounting and new furniture for your home office, you’ll earn 2x points on those purchases for that month. But if the following month your highest expenses are on vehicle repair and clothing, you’ll earn double points in those categories instead.

Encore relationship rewards

You can earn up to 240,000 bonus points per year through the encore relationship rewards program. The way it works is, if you have a U.S. Bank payment processing account you can earn extra bonuses by linking your card to the account. For every $2,000 in debit or credit card payments you accept and process through U.S. Bank you’ll receive 100 points, up to 20,000 points per month.

That’s a nice little extra $200 in rewards a month, but I don’t know much about U.S. Bank’s payment processing rates and you’ll want to shop around to make sure you’re getting the best rate and services for your business.

How to redeem rewards

This is essentially a cash-back credit card because the points you earn are worth one cent each for a few different redemptions. You can redeem your points for cash back, travel, gift cards or merchandise.

Is the annual fee worth it?

There’s a $95 annual fee, waived the first year. So it’s definitely worth trying the card out for the first year and because the bonus categories are automatically selected based on your spending, it’s an easy card to get the most out of. After the first year you’d need to spend an average of $4,750 in the card’s bonus categories each year in order to break even when paying the annual fee.

Who is the US bank business leverage card for?

If you qualify for a business card and most of your expenses fall outside of the traditional bonus categories (office supplies, telecom, travel, etc.) then this card is worth considering. Also, it has one of the best bonuses offers currently available and you have a full four months to meet the minimum spending requirement.

The simplicity of this card is nice and it’s a good deal if you can get it, but there are other business cash-back credit card options that are better overall.

Insider tip

Business credit cards issued by U.S. Bank won’t appear on your personal credit report. The advantage of this is that this card won’t add to your chase 5/24 count.

Alternatives to the US bank business leverage card

While the this card’s wide range of 2x bonus categories sounds impressive, you can actually do better with several cards that cost the same to keep every year.

For example, the capital one® spark® miles for business earns 2x miles on every purchase (worth one cent per point toward travel) and capital one® spark® cash for business earns 2% cash back everywhere. Both cards have a $95 annual fee that is waived the first year. So for the exact same annual fee you aren’t limited to earning double rewards only in two categories each month. Anyway you slice it that’s a better deal long-term, however these capital one credit cards do have smaller intro offers.

If you’re looking for a credit card with no annual fee, the citi® double cash card earns an unlimited 2% back everywhere (1% when you buy and 1% as you pay), although it isn’t a business credit card.

The information for the capital one spark miles and capital one spark cash has been collected independently by million mile secrets and has not been reviewed by the card issuer.

Bottom line

The U.S. Bank business leverage visa card has an excellent introductory offer worth $750 and you have a full four months to meet the card’s $7,500 minimum spending requirement. It also earns 2x points in the top two categories you spend the most in each month and there are tons of categories that qualify. Overall, it’s a solid card with a reasonable $95 annual fee that is waived the first year.

However, there are other cards with the exact same annual fee that earn double rewards on every purchase, regardless of category. So long term it’s not likely to be the best card for your business.

For more travel and credit card news, deals and analysis sign up for our newsletter here.

Chase sapphire preferred® card

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s $750 toward travel when you redeem through chase ultimate rewards®

2X points on dining at restaurants including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out and travel & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases.

Get 25% more value when you redeem for travel through chase ultimate rewards®. For example, 60,000 points are worth $750 toward travel.

Operating leverage

What is operating leverage?

Operating leverage is a cost-accounting formula that measures the degree to which a firm or project can increase operating income by increasing revenue. A business that generates sales with a high gross margin and low variable costs has high operating leverage.

The higher the degree of operating leverage, the greater the potential danger from forecasting risk, in which a relatively small error in forecasting sales can be magnified into large errors in cash flow projections.

The operating leverage and DOL

The formula for operating leverage is

Key takeaways

Operating leverage is a cost-accounting formula that measures the degree to which a firm or project can increase operating income by increasing revenue.

Companies with high operating leverage must cover a larger amount of fixed costs each month regardless of whether they sell any units of product.

Low-operating-leverage companies may have high costs that vary directly with their sales but have lower fixed costs to cover each month.

Calculating operating leverage

For example, company A sells 500,000 products for a unit price of $6 each. The company’s fixed costs are $800,000. It costs $0.05 in variable costs per unit to make each product.

Calculate company A’s degree of operating leverage as follows:

A 10% revenue increase should result in a 13.7% increase in operating income (10% x 1.37 = 13.7%).

What does operating leverage tell you?

The operating leverage formula is used to calculate a company’s break-even point and help set appropriate selling prices to cover all costs and generate a profit. The formula can reveal how well a company is using its fixed-cost items, such as its warehouse and machinery and equipment, to generate profits. The more profit a company can squeeze out of the same amount of fixed assets, the higher its operating leverage.

One conclusion companies can learn from examining operating leverage is that firms that minimize fixed costs can increase their profits without making any changes to the selling price, contribution margin, or the number of units they sell.

High and low operating leverage

It is important to compare operating leverage between companies in the same industry, as some industries have higher fixed costs than others. The concept of a high or low ratio is then more clearly defined.

Most of a company’s costs are fixed costs that recur each month, such as rent, regardless of sales volume. As long as a business earns a substantial profit on each sale and sustains adequate sales volume, fixed costs are covered and profits are earned.

Other company costs are variable costs that are only incurred when sales occur. This includes labor to assemble products and the cost of raw materials used to make products. Some companies earn less profit on each sale but can have a lower sales volume and still generate enough to cover fixed costs.

For example, a software business has greater fixed costs in developers’ salaries and lower variable costs in software sales. As such, the business has high operating leverage. In contrast, a computer consulting firm charges its clients hourly and doesn't need expensive office space because its consultants work in clients' offices. This results in variable consultant wages and low fixed operating costs. The business thus has low operating leverage.

Examples of operating leverage

Most of microsoft’s costs are fixed, such as expenses for upfront development and marketing. With each dollar in sales earned beyond the break-even point, the company makes a profit, but microsoft has high operating leverage.

Conversely, walmart retail stores have low fixed costs and large variable costs, especially for merchandise. Because walmart sells a huge volume of items and pays upfront for each unit it sells, its cost of goods sold increases as sales increase. Because of this, walmart stores have low operating leverage.

Lever vs. Leverage

A lever is a simple tool, a bar of iron or a sturdy length of wood that may be used to move or dislodge something heavy. Leverage is the mechanical advantage gained by a person using a lever. According to archimedes, the power of a lever is formidable:

“give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.” –archimedes

A simple verb that means “to use a lever” is lever:

Dig out a hollow which is larger than the base of the keystone and roll this rock into place. Use the crowbar to lever it into its final position.

Each wedge in the row is pounded until a thin crack forms between the wedges and the rock can be levered apart.

The noun from lever is leverage: the mechanical advantage gained by the use of a lever.

A figurative meaning of leverage is “an advantage for accomplishing a purpose.”

Price-conscious renters have no leverage [with landlords].

The west has far more economic leverage over russia at this moment than it does military possibilities.

The only negotiating leverage that most players had was to hold out at contract time, refusing to play unless their conditions were met.

The OED’s first documentation of leverage as a verb is dated 1937: “acey leveraged the arm upward.” by 1957, the form leveraged was in use to refer to buyouts and holding companies.

In terms of finance, leverage means “to speculate financially on borrowed capital expecting profits to be greater than the interest that must be paid on the borrowed money.”

A “leveraged buyout” is the buyout of a company by its management with the help of outside capital.”

The word leverage appears in so many contexts now, both as noun and verb, that sometimes a reader must think carefully in order to know if it’s a noun meaning advantage or borrowing, or a verb meaning to lever, to supplement, to provide, or something else. Here are some examples:

Hillshire brands expects to focus on continuing to invest in its business, reducing leverage over time and pursuing opportunistic acquisitions.

Alex okosi [is] a key figure in the creation and production of world class african TV content for africa. With this, he has built a successful platform for brands to leverage on.

5 real ways to leverage social media — ‘likes’ are not profit

How corine lafont leveraged her small business book award

Sometimes the prepositions that follow the verb leverage are redundant or just don’t make sense:

One should leverage off of the previous work in completing this project.”
president margee ensign…will lead faculty members…to deliberate on how to leverage on nigeria’s huge human and natural endowments to win the national war against poverty and illiteracy.

Bond investors looking for bigger returns are increasingly relying to leverage

Writers might want to consider relinquishing leverage to the corporate wheeler-dealers for their exclusive use to refer to borrowing and buyouts. Plain old lever still has its uses as a verb. As for leverage as a noun, advantage can replace it in most figurative contexts.

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7 responses to “lever vs. Leverage”

“leverage” has been so misused and misshapen as to have lost its utility. It is now simply another meaningless business term. It’s even worse than “paradigm.”

Dale A. Wood on may 22, 2014 4:12 pm

I thought that this article might say something about pronunciation:
at least in america, “lever” is said lev/er, with the slash to divide it into two syllables, and both of the “e”s being short.

Now in american english: “leverage” = lev/ER/age, with short “e”s and the stress on the second syllable.
British english: LEE/ver/age, with a long “e” in the first syllable, and with stress on this syllable.
It could be that this change is in certain dialects of british english. Also, some of the same people might say LEE/ver for the tool.

Another way of expressing it is that the british way of pronouncing it is as if the words are “leeeverage” and “leeever”.
I know from personal experience that the two pronunciations make it difficult for american children who watch a lot of british TV programs and movies. Of course, I liked to watch movies and programs about robin hood, etc.
D.A.W.

Venqax on may 22, 2014 6:20 pm

The lever/never vs lever/cleaver situation is a pronunciation irritant. AFAIK, the short E rhymes never is the accepted pronunciation in SAE. All the common main sources either list lever as US and “leever” as UK, or american sources don’t list “leever” at all, without even commenting on it. The only exceptions are re canadian– one lists the long E as “UK and canada”, while another lists the short E as “north american” as opposed to “british”; and, big surprise, MW which in its typically feckless fashion lists both without comment. Their principle of navigating english seems to be “when you get to a fork in the road, take it.”

I don’t think that meshes with a british pronunciation equaling 3 es. I believe the rule is that a triple E must be followed by a Y-O-W-! Combination, as in eee yow! Maybe eee-yuck! If used informally.

Venqax on may 22, 2014 6:34 pm

@danny: it is now simply another meaningless business term.

I agree and I wish “business/finance people”, whatever they are, would stop pirating, misusing and ruining perfectly good words for everyone else. *impression* and *rationalization* pop to mind.

Dale A. Wood on may 24, 2014 2:11 pm

Another way of expressing it is that the british way of pronouncing it is as if the words are “leeeverage” and “leeever”.

Note the phrase “as if the” and the fact that “leeeverage” and “leeever” were written for emphasis and exaggeration.
I could have written “leeeeverage” if I had wanted to, for the same reasons.

Roberta B. On may 24, 2014 3:35 pm

Leverage used in the financial lexicon provides a very useful image to express what was explained above: “to speculate financially on borrowed capital expecting profits to be greater than the interest that must be paid on the borrowed money.”

With a small risk to resources, the reward exponentially can be greater. Here is another case of the jargon from one field applied to another unrelated one to convey a concept or image.

Dale A. Wood on may 25, 2014 5:46 pm

I agree with roberta B. That “leverage” is a useful term for some kinds of financial transactions and maneuvers. I don’t have any objection to that use.

XAT score vs percentile

The xavier aptitude test or XAT is a standard ability-testing entrance examination for those aspiring to pursue business and management-related postgraduate programmes in indian universities. Typically, these include MBA and PGDM courses spanning across academic disciplines of business, human resources management, global management, amongst others. It is common to feel confused between XAT score vs percentile during the preparation phase of this entrance test. To help you understand the key differences, here is a comprehensive blog elaborating the necessary information regarding XAT scores and their respective percentiles as well as some major tips and tricks you can utilise for successfully acing this exam.

This blog includes:

XAT important notifications & changes

Before delving into the XAT score vs percentile debate, applicants need to keep in mind the deadlines operated by XLRI, the institution that conducts this exam. Here is a table listing down the key dates of the XAT exam 2020:

Starting date of registration	august 2020
last date of registration and application submission	november 2020
last date of registration (with late fee)	december 2020
admit card available	december 2020
exam date	january 20201

Please note that the official dates are yet to be announced by the authorities. We will update the dates as soon as the official notification is out!

As of 2020, XLRI has tweaked slightly with the syllabus thus altering the features of the exam pattern for the coming year. Following are the important pointers delineating the changes carried out.

Sections have been reduced from 4 to 5.

Essay writing has been stripped off the subjective question.

All 4 sections, namely verbal ability; reading comprehension & logical reasoning; decision making, quantitative ability & data interpretation and general knowledge will be part of a single question paper in place of the previous two different exams.

The total number of questions remain below 100.

Pattern of the question will comprise of multiple-choice questions.

Negative marking is not applicable in the 25 GK questions.

List of member institutes of XAT

Following are the 11 institutions who are accredited as the member institutes of XAT.

Loyola institute of business administration

St. Francis institute of management and research (SFIMR)

St. Joseph’s institute of management

St. Aloysius institute of management and information technology

Xavier business school, st. Xavier university, kolkata

Xavier institute of development action and sciences (XIDAS)

Xavier institute of management & entrepreneurship

Xavier institute of management and research

Xavier institute of management, xavier university

Xavier institute of social service

XLRI xavier school of management

Apart from the above-mentioned associate members, XAT scores are also accepted by institutions throughout india. Read about them in this list.

Find out everything about CAT 2020!

XAT score vs percentile: factors to consider

The scores for XAT 2020 exam have been mainly assessed from the candidates’ performance in the different sections. While drawing the comparison between XAT score vs percentile, the factors you must keep in mind are:

XAT percentile and cut-offs from the previous year.

Normalization of XAT scores

Taking the difficulty level in terms of section-wise breakdown

Total number of candidates who took the XAT exam.

XAT score vs percentile 2020 analysis

XAT 2020 was conducted on 5th january and then the results were subsequently released january 16. Coming to the XAT score vs percentile analysis, if we estimate the different factors mentioned above, it can be said that an overall score of 35+ can come under 95+ percentile while scoring 28+ will fetch you 89+ percentile. Thus, to get under 90 percentile bracket, the candidate must have the overall score of 30. Moreover, for the cut-offs of different business schools accepting XAT scores, the cutoff for XLRI will be somewhere within the range of 95+ since it is renowned for its flagship PGDM-BM. Since, XAT has been changed into a computerized format as well as there has been a reduction in the total number of questions, the difficulty level has significantly gone down which has lead to even average scores getting under higher percentile.

Find out which one is better management exam our blog GRE vs CAT!

XAT score vs percentile 2020: section-wise breakdown

When it comes to listing out the difference between XAT score vs percentile, let’s first take a look at the four sections that this exam comprises of:

Verbal ability, reading comprehension & logical reasoning

Decision making

Quantitative ability & data interpretation

General knowledge

Check out our detailed guide on XAT syllabus!

Now let’s take a look at the XAT score vs percentile for the expected 2020 scores for each of these sections:

Verbal & logical ability

XAT score	XAT percentile
9.5	85
10.5	90+
13.5	95+

Decision-making

XAT score	XAT percentile
9.0	85
10.5	90
11.5	95+

Quantitative ability & data interpretation

XAT score	XAT percentile
10.5	85
12.5	90
15	95+

In a total of 99 MCQ questions, the general knowledge section is not taken under the estimation of XAT score vs percentile.

Overall XAT score vs percentile

XAT score	XAT percentile
40.5	99+
35+	95+
32+	93+
30+	90+
28+	89+

XAT score vs percentile: cutoffs of the leading B-schools

Given below are the expected XAT 2020 percentile cutoffs of some of the major B-schools that accept XAT scores:

BIMTECH greater noida	75+
IFMR graduate school of business	79-80
XIME bangalore	80+
XIM jabalpur	80+
BULMIM	80+
loyola institute of business administration (LIBA)	80-85
K J somaiya institute of management studies & research	84-85
MICA (mudra institute of communications, ahmedabad)	80-84
IRMA (institute of rural management, anand)	80-84
great lakes institute of management	80-84
T.A. Pai management institute (TAPMI)	80-84
XISS ranchi	85+
graduate institute of management (GIM)	85-88
institute of management & technology (IMT)	90+
xavier institute of management, bhubhaneshwar (XIMB)	91+
S.P. Jain institute of management & research (SPJIMR)	90+
XLRI xavier school of management	95+

[bonus] tips & tricks to crack XAT

Apart from a diligent study plan that thoroughly covers all sections of the XAT exam, here are some major tips and tricks that can help you devise the right strategy for cracking this exam.

Understand the new revised syllabus, what it covers and what it does not as well as the number of questions asked and other related aspects. This will help you in listing down the different concepts you need to study for this exam.

Use techniques of elimination. Applicable in a large majority of questions, the elimination method can help you with several sections, especially in verbal reasoning and english language. It helps time and effort, both a luxury.

Make use of visualisation for solving various types of sections. More often than not, visualisation plays a key role in bringing you to the right answer effectively and quickly.

Have a strong conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts rather than learning all the formulae. If you practice your concepts thoroughly, it will surely pay dividends in the exam.

Keep revising current affairs. Make it a habit to read a newspaper daily or stay in touch with the world happenings by using news apps on your phone.

What is the percentage and percentile in XAT?
Percentile in the XAT exam donates the percentage of students who scored fewer marks than you. For example, suppose there are 100 candidates who gave a test and you scored the highest marks, then you have a 99 percentile.

Is GK included in XAT percentile?
No, GK scores are not included in the overall XAT percentile.

Is there sectional cutoff in XAT 2020?
Yes, the sectional cutoff is there in XAT 2020. You need to clear all the sectional cutoffs in order to make it through the exam.

Is XAT tougher than CAT?
Even though the syllabus for both the exams is more or less the same, many students comment that XAT is more difficult that XAT.

While it is essential to understanding the difference, mulling excessively over the XAT score vs percentile dilemma will not help you much. Instead, carefully devise a plan building on your strengths as well as weaknesses. In this respect, the experts at leverage edu can lend you more than a helping hand so that you sail through with flying colours.

So, let's see, what we have: investors use leverage to significantly increase the returns that can be provided on an investment and companies use leverage to finance their assets. At leverage vs. Bonus