Deriv questionsUpdated 3 min readBy the FXNOD team
How much money can you lose when trading on Deriv?
On a single options contract, the most you can lose is the stake you paid for it. Across a session you can lose your entire account balance, and automated or fast contracts can do that in minutes. Leveraged products such as CFDs can lose money more quickly still. The only real ceiling is the one you set yourself.
By product
| Product | Most one trade can lose | What makes it dangerous |
|---|---|---|
| Options (Rise/Fall, digits and similar) | The stake | A loss takes the whole stake, and contracts settle in seconds |
| Multipliers | The stake | The multiplier brings the loss of the stake closer |
| Accumulators, Turbos, Vanillas | The stake | A barrier or strike can end the contract suddenly |
| CFDs | Depends on the size, the leverage and your account's terms | Leverage multiplies losses; Deriv warns of losing money rapidly |
For CFDs, what happens if a position loses more than the account holds depends on the terms of the Deriv entity your account is with. Read them before using leverage.
The loss that matters is the session's
Nobody loses an account on one option. They lose it on a sequence. Twenty trades at a stake of 5 is 100 at risk in a few minutes on one-tick contracts. With a stake that doubles after each loss, seven losses in a row starting from 1 cost 127. The question to answer before you start is how much the whole session is allowed to lose.
How to cap it
Deposit only what you can afford to lose
The balance is the outer limit of any loss on options.
Set a session loss limit as money
Stop for the day when it is reached.
Keep the stake to a small share of that limit
One or two per cent leaves room for a normal losing streak.
Do not raise the stake after a loss
Recovery sizing is how small losses become one large one.
Use the limits your tools offer
A stop loss on a Multiplier, or a stop loss on a bot, acts when you do not.
With a bot on FXNOD
A bot cannot be started on FXNOD without a stop loss, and limits are checked on FXNOD's servers before every trade. Because the check comes before each order, the last trade can take a session past its stop loss by up to that trade's stake. With a flat stake that is small. With a stake that grows after losses it can be close to the stop loss again.
Questions people ask
- Can I lose more than I deposit on Deriv?
- On options and multipliers a trade cannot lose more than its stake, so those cannot take the balance below zero. For leveraged CFDs, check the terms of your Deriv entity.
- Can I lose all my money on Deriv?
- Yes. A run of losing trades can empty an account, and fast contracts or a bot can do it quickly.
- What is the safest way to trade on Deriv?
- No way is safe. The lowest-risk approach is a demo account. With real money: a small deposit, a small flat stake and a fixed daily loss limit.
Use your Deriv account from FXNOD
FXNOD is an independent terminal for your own Deriv account. You sign in on Deriv's page, your balance stays at Deriv, and you can trade by hand or run a bot. Start on the demo account.
Get started