Trading Pro Q&A: What have you learned from trading with leverage?

Leverage can make trading feel like driving a race car with rocket boosters—thrilling, but with the potential for disaster if you don’t know how to handle it. Today, three seasoned traders, Haikel Ali, Tomislav Kamenecki, and Stanislav Bernukhov, share what they’ve learned from using leverage and the advice they wish every beginner knew before stepping on the gas.

Trading with leverage is a double-edged tool that attracts both curious beginners and seasoned pros. It can amplify potential returns and open doors to bigger opportunities, but it can just as easily wipe out an account in seconds if used recklessly. Many traders enter leveraged trading thinking it’s a shortcut to wealth, only to learn—sometimes painfully—that it demands discipline, risk management, and emotional control above all else.

Whether it’s overestimating a winning streak, misusing high leverage for quick gains, or trading without a clear plan, the common theme is clear: leverage doesn’t create risk—poor decisions do. Let’s dive into the lessons that three trading specialists have learned along the way, and the imperative advice they have for anyone just starting to trade with leverage.

What have you learned from trading with leverage?

Haikel Ali  

Exness trading training specialist

”My biggest wake-up call was overleveraging because I thought my analysis was flawless. The market humbled me, fast—it didn’t care about my confidence. I learned that the real focus in leveraged trading isn’t making big returns; it’s protecting your capital and staying in the game long enough for skill to compound. Today, I start small and only scale when the trade is working in my favor.”

Insights for traders: Always begin with a manageable position and scale only after the market moves in your favour. Respect your stop loss and stick to your plan, no matter how good a trade looks. Consistency beats emotional decision-making—survival matters more than fast gains.

Tomislav Kamenecki

Exness senior trading training specialist

”Early in my career, I made the classic mistake of seeing leverage as a shortcut to bigger profits. I overlooked how quickly it can magnify losses too. Once I understood that leverage wasn’t meant to make me richer faster, but to free my capital and manage risk more efficiently, everything changed. I stopped using it to increase trade size recklessly and started using it to diversify positions without overcommitting to a single setup.”

Insights for traders: Think of leverage as a capital efficiency tool, not a profit booster. Keep your trading volume small, use strict stop losses, and never engage leverage without a clear risk plan. Leverage isn’t the enemy—poor risk management is.

Stanislav Bernukhov

Exness senior trading specialist

”Looking back, my biggest lesson was realizing that leverage is raw buying power—and with great power comes an even greater demand for self-discipline. It’s easy to take risks behind a screen because losses don’t feel real until the drawdown hits. I once treated high leverage like a fast car and pushed it too hard, without strict rules in place. That experience taught me that leverage is only dangerous when traders lack rigid risk management and control over their impulses.”

Insights for traders: Treat leverage as a tool, not a lottery ticket. Use it to scale into profitable trades carefully and to keep capital flexible, but make strict risk rules your first priority. Leverage isn’t a “get rich quick” scheme—it’s just one more tool that only works if you respect it.