Bitso does not use a leverage slider in margin trading. You do not pick 3x or 5x when you place an order.

Instead, the platform calculates your Trading Power: the largest order you can place right now. You see it on every margin order form.

How Trading Power is calculated

Three factors set the number.

• Your investor profile. Retail investors have a 3x effective leverage cap. Professional profiles can have a higher cap.
• How much your collateral counts. Collateral is the funds you keep in your Margin Wallet to back your trades. More volatile assets count for less than their market price.
• Your current exposure. Open positions use up Trading Power. Closing a position frees it up again.

Example

You are a retail investor with 1,000 Tether (USDT) of collateral in your Margin Wallet and no open positions.

• At the 3x cap, your Trading Power on a major pair backed by a stable digital currency is around 3,000 USDT.
• On a riskier pair, the same collateral counts for less. Your Trading Power on that pair drops, for example to around 2,400 USDT, even though your collateral has not changed.
• After you open a 1,500 USDT position, your remaining Trading Power on that pair drops accordingly.

Trading Power and leverage are not the same thing

Leverage is the ratio of your total position size to your own collateral. Trading Power is the cap the platform applies right now, based on your profile, your collateral mix, and your open exposure.

Trading Power can sit below your nominal leverage cap if you hold volatile collateral or already have positions open.

Why you see two different numbers

Trading Power appears in two places, and each one answers a different question.

• In the Margin tab of your Portfolio: how much you could trade overall with your current collateral, before any specific pair is considered.
• On the order form: how much you can trade right now, on this pair and in this direction. This accounts for both assets involved, the one you buy and the one you sell, plus your current exposure in them.

That is why the order form number is usually a little lower than the Portfolio one, and why it changes when you switch pairs or direction.

For example, your Portfolio shows 2,280 US dollars of Trading Power. You open the Bitcoin (BTC) against dollar order form to buy and see 1,910. Nothing is wrong: the Bitcoin you are about to buy also becomes collateral and counts for less than its market price, so the platform backs a slightly smaller order on that pair. On a pair of stable digital currencies, the number sits closer to your Portfolio figure.

The number that applies to the order you are about to place is the one on the form. Both numbers update in real time as prices, your balances, and your open orders change.

Where to find it

• On every margin order form, next to the order fields. This is the pair-specific figure.
• In the Margin tab of your Portfolio. This is your account-level reference.