What's the Difference Between the Maximum Leverage & Used Leverage?

You should not that there is a difference between maximum leverage ( xauusd leverage given by your broker which is the highest leverage you can trade with if you choose to) and used leverage ( xauusd leverage depending on the lots you've opened/open trades). One is the online broker's (Maximum) and the other is trader's (Used). To explain this particular concept we shall use above example:

If your broker has given you 100:1 Maximum leverage, but you only open lots of $100,000 then Used leverage is:

100,000 : $10,000 (your money)

10:1 Used Leverage

You've used 10:1 xauusd leverage, but your max xauusd leverage is still 100:1. This means that even if you're given 100:1 Maximum leverage or 200:1 Maximum leverage, you do not have to use all of it. It's best to keep your used leverage to a maximum of 10:1 but you'll still select 100:1 maximum leverage option for your trading account. The extra leverage will give you what we call Free Margin, As long as you've some Free margin on your account then your trades won't get closed by your broker because this margin requirement will remain above required level.

In xauusd trading one of your xauusd rules: equity management rules on your xauusd plan should be to use leverage option below 5:1.

Leverage Example

The example illustrated below, the set leverage is 100 : 1, the margin which is 1 percent is $2683.07, therefore the total amount controlled by the trader is: $268,307 - this is because with this leverage the trader has used little of his money & borrowed the rest of the money, with this set at 100:1 option, the trader is using 1% of their capital, this 1 percent equals to $2683.07, if 1 percent is equal to $2683.07 then 100% is equal to $268,307

Meta Trader 4 Platform - What's the Difference Between the Maximum Leverage & Used Leverage in Trading?

In the above screen-shot example, the trader is using $2683.07, total controlled amount is $268,307, but the account equity is 16,116.55, hence used leverage is ( $268,307 divide by 16,116.55 ) = 16.64 : 1

16.64 : 1

In the account above even though the max leverage set trade leverage is 100:1, Used leverage is 16.64 : 1