MT5 free margin and used margin: what the numbers mean

Understand the account strip in the Trade tab, with a worked example and a simple journal habit for tracking it.

The Trade tab of MetaTrader 5 shows a small strip of account figures: balance, equity, margin, free margin and margin level. Most traders watch the profit number and ignore the others until a platform warning appears. Free margin is the figure that tells you how much room you have left to open new positions or to absorb adverse movement. This page explains what it is, how it relates to used margin and equity, how a new position changes it, and how to record it in a journal so you can see whether you habitually crowd your account.

Used margin and free margin

Margin is the amount of your capital that the broker sets aside to keep your open positions. It is returned when the positions close. The part of your equity that is not set aside is free margin. In a formula, free margin equals equity minus used margin. Because equity includes the floating profit or loss of open trades, free margin moves when prices move, even if you do nothing. The difference between balance and equity is covered in balance versus equity, and the realised and floating pieces in floating versus realised profit.

What a new position does

Opening a position raises used margin by the amount the broker requires for that size and symbol, which depends on leverage and the symbol’s contract, as explained in leverage and margin requirement. Free margin falls by the same amount at once. The platform also shows the effect of the spread, because a position starts slightly under water, so equity dips a little at the moment of entry and free margin dips with it. On a hedging account the effect of an opposite position depends on the broker, as described in hedged margin.

Free margin is not the same as risk

It is easy to confuse available room with sensible size. A large free margin does not mean that a big position is safe; it only means that the broker would accept the order. Risk depends on how far price can move against you relative to your equity, and that is determined by your stop and your size, not by the margin number. A trader can have plenty of free margin and still risk far more than planned on a single trade. The other direction also holds: a small free margin does not by itself mean high risk if positions are small and protected.

When free margin runs out

If floating losses grow, equity falls faster than margin does, so free margin shrinks and then reaches zero. At that point the platform will refuse new orders that need margin. If losses continue, the margin level falls toward the broker’s margin call and stop-out thresholds, which differ by broker and are explained in stop out and margin call and margin level explained. The thresholds are settings of your account, so check them with your broker rather than relying on a number you saw elsewhere.

A simple journal habit

• When you open a trade, note the free margin you had left in the entry notes, or at least tick whether you were comfortable.
• After a drawdown day, write down the lowest free margin you saw, since the history will not show it.
• Compare size with stop distance, not with free margin, when you decide how much to risk.
• Flag trades where you added to a loser; adding uses free margin you may need later.

None of these is advice about how to trade. They are prompts to make the account state visible in your notes, because the closed-trade history does not contain it.

A worked example (hypothetical)

An account has equity of 5,000 and used margin of 800, so free margin is 4,200 and margin level is 625 percent. A new position needs 600 of margin, so used margin becomes 1,400 and free margin 3,600, assuming equity is unchanged. If the open trades then lose 1,500, equity becomes 3,500, free margin becomes 2,100 and margin level falls to 250 percent. Nothing was closed, yet the room has halved. The numbers are invented and show the arithmetic only.

What the journal app can and cannot show

AI Trading Journal, a Windows app for MetaTrader 5 only, reads closed trades from the terminal on your own PC. It does not record the floating profit of open trades or your free margin over time, so those figures are not in the journal unless you write them in the notes. It is read-only and never places, modifies or closes a trade. Its dashboard and calendar are built from closed results, which is the history of realised outcomes, not a record of how close the account came to a limit.

Limits and cautions

• Field names and layout depend on your terminal build; check your terminal.
• Margin rules, margin call and stop-out levels belong to your broker and account type.
• Free margin changes with price, so the figure in a screenshot is only true for that moment.
• The example numbers are invented.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• A local trading journal for MT5
• P&L calendar for MT5
• Trade notes, ratings and screenshots
• Trading progress and goals
• Back up your journal and move it to a new PC
• An offline trading journal for Windows
• How to set monthly trading goals
• Import your whole MT5 history
• How to tag trades
• Trade screenshots for your journal
• All trading journal comparisons