What Is Margin?

Margin is when you borrow agn stocks that you buy to then be able to buy more stocks. It's a huge profit center for the brokerages where they lend you money, it typically seven times their cost of that money. You are given minutes or hours to meet what's called a margin call, because now you don't have enough money in value of the shares to cover the amount you'v borrowed. This is a recipe for personal financial disaster. Remember, you can double your money on the way up. But the risk on the way down is much greater.