This route is for someone who has opened a demo account and wants to use leverage without losing the deposit. Leverage lets you control a position larger than your cash. In Kenya, retail accounts are usually opened through brokers regulated by the CMA, and deposits move by M-Pesa or bank transfer. The route does not teach a strategy. It teaches the arithmetic that keeps a strategy alive long enough to be tested.

Have three things ready before lesson one. A demo account funded with an amount you can name, such as KSh 50,000, so every figure is real to you. A calculator, because pip values on EUR/USD around 1.0850 are not obvious. And a notebook with two columns: one for the trade plan, one for what actually happened. The second column is the one that improves you.

The order matters because each lesson removes a way to lose money. Margin explains what the broker holds. Lots turn that into a position size. Stops define the loss before entry. The 1-2% rule caps that loss, position size makes the cap fit the stop, drawdown shows the cumulative effect, and stop out is the broker closing the account for you. Skip a step and the later numbers have no meaning.

Start with leverage and margin. On EUR/USD at 1.0850, one standard lot is 100,000 units. At 1:100 leverage, the margin held is about KSh 108,500, while the position value is about KSh 10,850,000. The difference is borrowed. If the price moves against you by one pip, you lose about KSh 1,085 on that lot. That single figure is the reason the rest of the route exists.

Then learn lots and stops together. A mini lot is 10,000 units and a micro lot is 1,000. On EUR/USD around 1.0850, one pip on a micro lot is roughly KSh 108.50, and on a mini lot roughly KSh 1,085. A stop loss 30 pips away on a micro lot risks about KSh 3,255. Take profit is the same arithmetic in reverse. Write both prices down before you enter, not after.

Only then apply the 1-2% rule. If the account holds KSh 50,000, 1% is KSh 500 and 2% is KSh 1,000. Divide the cap by the stop distance to get position size. With a 30-pip stop and a KSh 500 cap, you can risk about KSh 16.70 per pip, which is under a micro lot. Most beginners discover here that their intended trade is smaller than they assumed. That discovery is the point of the route.

Drawdown is the distance from the highest account value to the current one. Five losses of KSh 500 on a KSh 50,000 account is a drawdown of KSh 2,500, or 5%. The percentage is what matters, not the shilling amount, because position size is calculated from the current balance. After the drawdown, the same 1% rule allows KSh 475 per trade, not KSh 500. The account shrinks and so does the risk.

A margin call and a stop out are not the same event. The margin level is equity divided by used margin, shown as a percentage. Each broker sets its own margin call level and stop out level, and those figures vary, so read your own broker's terms. When the level falls far enough, the broker closes positions without asking. That is the stop out, and it can happen while you are asleep.

The route ends here because this is where leverage shows its real cost. A stop loss limits one trade. A stop out limits the account. If you have followed the earlier lessons, your stop loss should trigger long before the stop out level is reached. If it does not, the position was too large for the balance, and the earlier arithmetic was skipped. Finishing the route means you can show, on paper, why your stop comes first.