Leverage

The FCA's policy statement describes the retail cap as leverage of 30:1 to 2:1, depending on the underlying. COBS 22.5 states the same limits as minimum initial margin: at least 3.33% of exposure for a major FX pair or relevant sovereign debt, 5% for a minor FX pair, gold or a major index, 10% for another commodity or a minor index, 20% for a share or anything else on the list, and 50% for a cryptocurrency. Posting 3.33% is one unit of margin for about 30 units of exposure, which is the 30:1 end of the FCA's description. Posting 50% is the 2:1 end. These are maximums for retail clients in the products COBS 22.5 covers. They are not a suggested setting. MetaTrader's own margin example uses 1:100, which is above the UK retail FX cap. ASIC publishes a similar retail scale, from 30:1 for a major currency pair to 2:1 for a crypto-asset.