Welcome IJC. Yourself, Derrickhand, and Houston all make good point about margin. Namely, don't overextend yourself. I believe that margin can be a very powerful tool to help your investments grow (make money on other people's money) and I typically do not take more than 5-10% of the value of my portfolio in margin. High beta stocks are very risky on margin and you can loose double if your investment decreases in value. QEC can easily have a pullback/correction since its share price has appreciated almost 40% since the low. Manipulators had their way with QEC pulling the price down, but people who overextended on margin caused the final tumble. Houston is right on the money in saying to eliminate your margin if you can not handle the fluctuations and fear of margin calls, forcing you to sell at a loss.