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Leverage Land Mines
http://art.fdlive.com/articles/37544/1/Leverage-Land-Mines/Page1.html
Bill Byrnes
Bill Byrnes is co-founder of MUTUALdecision, a website providing mutual fund data, and the author of the MUTUALdecision Blog. He's been an investment banker with Alex. Brown & Sons and a Finance Professor at Georgetown University. He's been CEO, chairman and served on the board of directors of several public and private companies. He holds MBA and JD degrees and is a Chartered Financial Analyst with over 30 years experience in the investment industry. 
By Bill Byrnes
Published on 04/24/2008
 
Simply put, leverage magnifies your gain or loss and, since you're borrowing money which must be repaid, you can lose more than your entire investment (the investment and the loan amount).