The world of trading is filled with ups and downs, with volatility often wiping out billions across various markets. While most headlines tend to focus on the aftermath of market crashes, a recent report from Leverage.Trading sheds light on how retail traders measure risk before these headline-grabbing events occur.
The Global Leverage & Risk Report for August 2025, based on data from 27,416 traders across 94 countries, provides insights into how traders use risk calculators to assess liquidation levels, margin exposures, and position sizes before executing trades. This data offers a unique perspective on trader behavior, capturing the stress and panic that build up before markets experience significant shifts.
Unlike traditional exchange feeds that only log liquidations after they’ve happened, Leverage.Trading’s telemetry records how traders plan their risk management strategies before entering trades. For example, on a day when Bitcoin experienced a $1.29 billion short wipeout, liquidation safety checks spiked significantly just hours before the crash, indicating that traders were already preparing for potential losses.
The report also highlights key events in August 2025 that tested traders’ risk management strategies. From a surge in liquidation checks as Ether rallied to a spike in risk assessments during a $6 billion options expiry, the data shows how traders across the globe react to market uncertainties in real time.
Geographic patterns in risk behavior were also observed, with traders in India adjusting their cross-asset position sizing, Turkish traders piling into high-leverage bets during the lira’s collapse, and Southeast Asian traders bracing for significant wipeouts around Bitcoin’s volatile moves.
One interesting trend noted in the report is that 85% of all liquidation safety checks were conducted on mobile devices, indicating that risk management is increasingly happening on-the-go. Leverage.Trading is also working on developing a Retail VIX, an index that tracks retail sentiment under stress by analyzing millions of aggregated calculator checks.
The methodology behind the report is transparent, with findings based on anonymized first-party usage of Leverage.Trading’s calculators. This data captures pre-trade risk checks made by traders before committing capital, providing valuable insights into market psychology and trader behavior.
Overall, Leverage.Trading’s report offers a unique perspective on retail risk sentiment and market structure analysis. By focusing on how traders prepare to survive market fluctuations, the data provides valuable insights for traders looking to navigate volatile markets effectively.