The margin requirement is the amount of funds used to hold a position open.
You can find examples of how to calculate the required margin for a position below:
Example 1:
Account Currency: USD
Currency Pair: USDCAD
Base Currency: USD
Volume = 1.00 lot (100,000 units of base currency)
Leverage = 1:400
Margin = (100,000 * 1) / 400 = 250.00 USD
Example 2:
Account Currency: USD
Currency Pair: EURUSD
Base Currency: EUR
Volume 0.10 lot (10,000 units of the base currency)
Leverage= 1:400
Spot rate EUR to USD = 1.1400
Margin = (10,000 * 1.1400) / 400 = 28.5 USD
Example 3:
Account Currency: USD
Currency Pair: GBPCHF
Base Currency: GBP
Volume: 0.20 lot (20,000 units of base currency)
Leverage: 1:100
Spot rate GBP to USD = 1.3200
Margin = (20,000 * 1.3200) / 100 = 264.00 USD