In finance, leverage (or gearing in the United Kingdom and Australia) is any technique involving borrowing funds to buy an investment, estimating that future profits will be more than the cost of borrowing. This technique is named after a lever in physics, which amplifies a small input force into a greater output force, because successful leverage amplifies the smaller amounts of money needed for borrowing into large amounts of profit. However, the technique also involves the high risk of not being able to pay back a large loan. Normally, a lender will set a limit on how much risk it is prepared to take and will set a limit on how much leverage it will permit, and would require the acquired asset to be provided as collateral security for the loan. Leveraging enables gains to be multiplied. On the other hand, losses are also multiplied, and there is a risk that leveraging will result in a loss if financing costs exceed the income from the asset, or the value of the asset falls. Sources Leverage can arise in a number of situations, such as: securities like options and futures are effectively bets between...