Leverage is a loan from your broker, sized as a multiple of the money you put up. On EUR/USD around 1.0850, a standard lot moves about ₦1,085 for every pip if you hold the whole position yourself. At leverage of 1:100 you post roughly one hundredth of that position's value as margin, and the broker covers the rest. The borrowed part is not free in the sense that matters: it is repaid automatically when the position closes, and it can be taken back by the broker before you decide to close.

The cost shows up in three places. Spread is charged the moment you open, so a position starts slightly behind. Swap, also called overnight financing, is charged if you hold past the broker's daily cut-off, and it varies between brokers. Margin is not a fee but money locked while the trade is open, and it is returned when the trade closes. None of these three is a commission in the ordinary sense, and none of them depends on whether the trade wins.

Margin is held against the position, not spent. If you deposit ₦100,000 and open a position needing ₦20,000 of margin, ₦80,000 stays free and ₦20,000 is unavailable until you close. Losses come out of the free part first, and once free margin runs low the broker acts. That action is the subject of the last lesson on this route, and it is easier to understand after the earlier ones.

The amount of leverage a broker offers is a setting, not a strategy. Choosing 1:500 instead of 1:100 does not change the size of a pip on EUR/USD; it changes how little margin is locked and therefore how large a position the same deposit can carry. The risk in the trade is set by position size and stop distance, not by the leverage number on the account. A reader who treats leverage as a risk dial has already confused two separate things.

The route begins with leverage and margin because every later number depends on them. Lots come second because a lot is the unit in which position size is expressed, and until the reader knows that a standard lot, a mini lot and a micro lot differ by factors of ten, no size calculation will mean anything. Stop loss and take profit come third because a stop is what turns an open-ended loss into a known one, and a known loss is the input to every risk figure that follows.

Risk per trade comes fourth, and it is placed there deliberately. The 1-2% rule is often taught as a rule to memorise, but it only becomes usable once the reader can see a stop as a price, not a hope. Position size comes fifth because it is arithmetic: account balance, risk percentage and stop distance produce a lot size. A reader who reaches this lesson without the first four will calculate a number and not know what it protects.

Drawdown and losing streaks come sixth because they are what the earlier arithmetic produces over many trades. A run of losses is normal, and its size is predictable from the risk per trade, not from luck. Margin call and stop out come last because they are the endpoint of a chain that starts with leverage and passes through position size. Teaching stop out first would describe a consequence with no visible cause.

This order is also the order in which mistakes become expensive. A reader who sizes positions before understanding margin will over-leverage without noticing. A reader who learns stop out before drawdown will fear it without being able to avoid it. Following the sequence is not a formality; it is the cheapest way through the material.

Before starting, have a demo account with a broker that accepts Nigerian clients, funded with virtual money only. Have the EUR/USD chart open on a timeframe you can read, and know where the broker lists its margin requirements and its swap charges. Have a calculator and a written record, on paper or in a spreadsheet, of every practice trade: size, entry, stop, exit and the money result. The record is the part most readers skip, and it is the part that makes the route work.

Deposits and withdrawals at Nigerian brokers are usually made by bank transfer, USSD or card, and the available methods, fees and settlement times vary between brokers. Check what your chosen broker supports before relying on it. SEC Nigeria regulates certain investment activity in the country, and a reader should confirm a firm's status rather than assume it. This course does not recommend any broker, and no figure here should be read as a promise about what any account will earn.

Finishing the route does not make a reader profitable. It gives a reader a method: a way to decide position size from a stop distance, a way to keep losses inside a chosen fraction of the account, and a way to recognise when a margin call is approaching rather than being surprised by it. Those are skills that can be practised on a demo account for as long as the reader wants. Whether they lead to profit depends on decisions this course cannot make for anyone.

The most common mistakes are predictable. Readers use maximum leverage because it is available. They move a stop loss when price approaches it, which turns a known loss into an unknown one. They risk a fixed lot size instead of a fixed percentage, so the same trade risks different amounts as the account changes. They add to a losing position. They treat a demo account as a game and take none of the numbers seriously. Each of these is corrected by the lesson it belongs to, which is why the order is worth keeping.