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Movable and fixed

A first position moves four figures and cannot touch four settings (South Africa)

An account has two kinds of property. Some of it is figures that start moving the second a position opens and stop when it closes. The rest was decided before any trade existed, sits underneath, and a trade has no reach into it at all. Most of the alarm around a first position comes from mistaking one kind for the other.

Short version. Opening a position rearranges four figures — how much is free, how much is set aside, what the result is worth right now, and what the balance becomes after closing. It leaves four things exactly as they were: the currency the account counts in, the name the account is held in, the identity check behind that name, and the route money is allowed to take back out. Nothing is spent and nothing is sent anywhere. Every one of these lives inside the broker's own account area and platform; none of it can be seen, held or altered from here.

The four that move, and where each is read

All four appear on the same panel of the trading platform, and they are the only part of the account a trade has any effect on.

FigureWhat opening a position does to itWhat closing does
Free marginFalls by the amount the ticket stated it would holdGets that amount back
Used marginRises from zero to that same amount — set aside, still on the account, still in your nameReturns to zero
Floating resultAppears and starts moving; it is a valuation, not money that has arrivedStops existing
BalanceUnchanged while the position is openAbsorbs the result and settles

Read them as a set. Any one of the four on its own is misleading, which is why a falling free-margin line reads like a loss to somebody looking only at that line. Which pot each money word counts

The four a trade cannot reach

These were settled before the account had anything in it, and no order, size or outcome edits any of them.

  1. The currency the account counts in

    Fixed when the account was created, from the options the creation screen listed. Every one of the four moving figures is denominated in it. If money arrived from a rand bank account into an account held in another currency, that conversion was done by the payment provider on the way in — before any of this — and trading does not revisit it.

  2. The name the account is held in

    A trade does not create or transfer ownership of anything. Used margin is not money handed over; it is your own money described differently for as long as the position is open, on an account in the same single name it had this morning.

  3. The identity check behind that name

    A government-issued photo ID and a proof of residential address, usually approved within about 24 hours. Trading neither advances it nor invalidates it. Profitable trades do not shorten it and a losing first week does not reopen it. What the document check actually asks

  4. The route money is allowed to take back out

    Money returns the way it came: up to the amount deposited goes back to the method it arrived on, and anything above that is paid out separately. That rule is a property of the payments, not of the trading, and closing a position does not rewrite it. The route back out

An independent guide: it places no orders, holds no money and sees no account. Margin figures, tickets and the account history all live inside your Exness account area and platform.

The one thing a position leaves behind permanently

Three of the four moving figures are gone within a second of closing: used margin is zero, the floating result has stopped existing, free margin is whole again. What stays is an entry in the account history, with its own timestamp, its own volume and its own settled result.

That entry outlives the position by a long way, and it is the only version of the trade that anybody else can look at. A later question about what happened is answerable if it quotes the entry — date, time, instrument, volume — and unanswerable if it quotes a memory. Support runs around the clock through live chat, email and a help centre, and all three answer to records rather than to recollection.

One figure on that entry is worth expecting in advance: a position carried past the daily rollover is charged a swap. It is stated on the ticket before the trade is confirmed and it lands on the account afterwards, so it belongs to the record rather than to the surprise. On a swap-free account it is not applied to eligible instruments at all.

Questions asked while the first position is open

Part of my balance disappeared the moment I opened the trade. Where did it go?

Nowhere. It moved from free margin to used margin — set aside on the same account, in the same name, and released the moment the position closes.

Does opening a trade change the account's currency?

No. That was fixed when the account was created and nothing about trading edits it. Holding a different currency means opening another account, not converting this one.

Can a trade affect my verification?

No. The identity check belongs to the profile, not to any position, and its outcome has nothing to do with how a trade went.

Can I withdraw while a position is open?

Only what is free. The part held as used margin is unavailable until the position closes, and any request still follows the same route the money arrived on.

Where should I look first after confirming?

At the four figures rather than the chart. Everything that just changed about your money is on that side of the screen, and the chart shows something that was already moving.

A small charge appeared overnight. What was it?

The swap on a position held past the daily rollover. The ticket states it before you confirm, so it can be read in advance rather than discovered.

Where do I see the trade after it is closed?

In the account history, with its own timestamp. That entry, not memory, is what a later question about the trade should quote.

Is the smallest possible first trade the sensible one?

A smaller volume holds a smaller share of the balance, which makes all four figures easy to watch at once without any of them looking alarming. Trading is risky and may not be suitable for everyone.

The pages either side of this one

Demo account

Where the same four figures move with nothing at stake and no document involved.

Rehearse the panel

Practice calculator

What a chosen size does to the amount that gets set aside.

Run the sum

Risk basics

Which money a trade can reach, and where the outer edge of that reach sits.

See the boundary

Watch the four figures move on virtual money first.

The same panel, the same rearrangement, nothing set aside that matters. The button goes through a partner link to the official exness.com website.

Open a free demo at Exness