A margin account allows customers to open positions with a higher value than the amount of funds they have deposited in their account.
Also known as trading on a leveraged basis, most online firms offer up to 200 times leverage on a mini contract account. The forex market offers the highest leverage among other trading instruments with a margin requirement of 0.5% for open positions.
The equity in excess of the margin requirement acts as a cushion for the trader. If a trader loses on a position to the point that the cushion runs out, then a margin call will result.
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