LiquidityFlowMarket desk

Home / Blog / MEXC

CFD margin, worked through one account

$2,000 balance, $20,000 of gold exposure, and why a 50% margin level means you have lost $1,500, not half

By Updated

Key takeaway

Being able to open a leveraged position and being able to survive a move against it are two separate questions. MEXC Learn's new CFD explainer answers both with one account, followed price by price until it hits the stop-out line.

Official MEXC Learn cover art: two silver coins bearing the MEXC logo sit on a stack inside a translucent blue glass box against a dark background.
Image: MEXC official article image, as used in the original post.

The image is the official MEXC Learn cover art for the article.

Two formulas first

  • Required margin = position value x margin rate
  • Leverage = position value / required margin

So a 5% margin rate is 20:1, and a $20,000 position needs $1,000 of margin.

The account (all figures are the article's hypothetical)

A $2,000 balance buys 0.10 lot of a gold CFD where one lot is 100 ounces, opening at $2,000 an ounce. That is $20,000 of exposure and $1,000 of margin, and every $1 move in gold is $10 of P&L.

At the open: equity $2,000, used margin $1,000, free margin $1,000, margin level 200%.

Walking the price down

  • Gold $1,940: loss $600, equity $1,400, free margin $400, margin level 140%
  • Gold $1,900: loss $1,000, equity $1,000, free margin $0, margin level 100%
  • Gold $1,850: loss $1,500, equity $500, free margin -$500, margin level 50%

That last line is the trap. A 50% margin level did not mean half the balance was gone; equity fell from $2,000 to $500. The loss was also bigger than the $1,000 that was set aside as margin.

How MEXC's CFD rules plug in

The article checked MEXC's published CFD account rules on November 1, 2026:

  • Stop-out triggers when margin level drops to 50%
  • Leverage is set by asset class and fixed by the system; you cannot adjust it manually right now
  • USDT moved from Spot into an activated CFD account converts to USDx 1:1 for margin and settlement, and a Spot balance left behind does not count as collateral

The number people skip

Product leverage here is 20:1, but the account's exposure is $20,000 against $2,000 of equity, or 10x. After the $600 loss it is about 14.3x without a single new trade.

Margin decides whether a trade can open; position size and what is left in equity decide how long it stays open.

Open an account

MEXC referral promo codeMEXC

MEXC fees, review and signup details

Open MEXC

LiquidityFlow may earn a commission if you register through that link. Affiliate disclosure

More MEXC posts