Leverage lets you open a much larger position with a small margin. It magnifies losses as much as gains — which is why regulators limit it. A short definition is in our glossary; everything below comes from the SPK’s own investor booklet.
What is the maximum leverage in forex?
The SPK is explicit: in leveraged trading the leverage ratio is applied at a maximum of 10:1. There is a less well-known sub-rule: for customers whose initial margin at account opening is below TRY 50,000 (or its foreign-currency equivalent), at most half of that ratio — i.e. 1:5 — may be applied. The Board may also change these ratios and set asset-specific leverage where it sees fit. So 1:10 is a ceiling, not an entitlement; the ratio applied to your account may be lower.
Why did the SPK set a cap?
The SPK regulates leveraged trading as a derivative instrument; minimum margin, a suitability test and a risk disclosure form are mandatory. The goal is to prevent inexperienced investors from losing all their capital in a single trade.
The regulator’s own example makes it concrete: with TRY 10,000 of margin and 1:10 leverage you open a TRY 100,000 dollar position; if the rate falls from 10 to 5, the loss is TRY 50,000 — five times the margin deposited. That asymmetry is precisely why the cap exists.
How much leverage should you use?
There is no single correct answer, and FXŞikayetvar does not give investment advice. What can be stated factually is this: 1:10 is not a target but the regulator’s ceiling. The higher the leverage, the smaller the price move needed to wipe out a position; the SPK’s booklet separately warns that leverage “can work against you as much as for you”. You can see the margin a trade requires and your account’s effective leverage with our margin and leverage calculators before opening it.
You cannot be asked for more than your margin
This is one of the least-known but most valuable provisions: retail customers and elective professional customers may not be made to trade in a way that causes a loss exceeding the margin they deposited. If market conditions do produce a loss beyond the margin, in the SPK’s words that loss may not be demanded from those customers.
The scope matters: this protection applies only to SPK-authorized intermediaries. On an unauthorized offshore site you have no such right. An investor facing “your account went negative, settle your debt” should first verify whether the platform appears on the list of SPK-authorized institutions.
Banks cannot offer leveraged forex
Another explicit line in the booklet: banks may not carry out leveraged trading for their customers. Only SPK-authorized intermediary institutions may conduct this activity.
In practice many banks have a separate investment firm — for example Yapı Kredi Yatırım or QNB Finansinvest — and the authorization sits with that firm, not the bank. So the name to check in an offer is the authorized institution’s, not the bank’s.
Why is a 1:500 leverage promise a warning sign?
An SPK-licensed institution cannot offer more than 1:10. Platforms advertising 1:500 or 1:1000 are almost always sites not authorized by the SPK; there is no investor protection and the fraud risk is high.
When the SPK identifies such sites it has them blocked and announces the decision in its weekly bulletins. You can check whether a domain has been blocked in our SPK Bulletins archive, and see the consolidated list of unauthorized platforms on our unauthorized forex companies page.
Three checks before you trade
A few minutes of verification is cheaper than a recovery process that can take months. Confirm the firm is on the SPK authorized list; check that the leverage offered does not exceed 1:10; make sure the domain does not appear on the blocked list. If you already have a problem, our forex complaint guide sets out which authority to approach and how.