You Risk Is Limited -- Here's How

Unlike stocks or futures, stops on Forex are guaranteed to be filled, even on gaps, and your account cannot go below your initial margin deposit. You can never lose more than you put down, and you will never receive a maintenance call. To show how this works, let's look at the following trade-gone-wrong: A short in the Swiss Franc at 1.2676 with a stop loss at 1.2710, risking a total of 35 pips. Then the unthinkable happens: a big gaping hole in the chart appears over the weekend. If something like this happened in the equity markets, your stop is meaningless and you would cover at the opening price Monday morning, locking in a huge loss. With FX, your stop is honored, yielding a more manageable 35-pip loss. Note that a stop must be in place to receive this protection!