What do the following terms on my platform mean: balance, equity, margin, free margin and margin level?

Find out what some of the common terms on the MetaTrader 4 platform mean:

• Balance - This is the total ledger value of your account including all deposits, withdrawals, profits or losses from closed trades and other adjustments applied to your trading account.
  
  
• Profit/Loss – This is the current floating profit or loss on your open trades.
  
  
• Credit – This is the value of any trading credits which have been applied to your account.
  
  
• Equity - This is the total current value of your account, available to cover your margin requirements. This includes the Balance, Profit/Loss and Credit.
  (Balance plus Profit/Loss plus Credit).
  
  
• Margin - This is the total current Equity value you need to have, and maintain, in your account to cover and maintain any open positions.
  
  
• Free Margin – Free margin is the amount of funds that have not been used as margin for open positions. It is the amount of funds in your account that can either be withdrawn or used to open new positions. In other words, is the difference between your Equity and your Margin.
  (Equity minus Margin). 
  
  
• Margin Level - It is the ratio of Equity to Margin, indicated as a percentage. This is an indication of how healthy your account is. The higher this ratio is, the less likely you are to get into a margin call or have positions closed out.
  ( Equity divided by Margin ) %.