MomentsofSanity
Lifer
- Jan 25, 2011
- 16,702
- 8,926
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Thanks, ill check em out... I am very very new to the game, Hugo Drax - you need minimum 25k to open a margin day trading account? I very easily could dump that money to do so... but I do not want to drop that much and have it tied up just to play with. (i am not rich) I want to have full control of my monies - I will accept risk but I am simply looking to go with something to throw a few hundred every so often into and just dip my toe into the waters..... Do any/all the online brokerage firms mandate a 25k minimum account to allow you to trade? (even the ones with the 5.95/7.95 a trade fee?)
It's actually a FINRA rule (Pattern Day Trader). No way around it if you're in a margin account and your strategy is to truly day trade with frequency of more than 3 round trips in a rolling 5 business day period. You will need the minimum equity of 25K in the account. Unless of course day trades make up only 6% of your overall trade activity but I have yet to see that happen.
You can day trade in limited capacity in a cash accounts but you're limited to buy side settlement. Kind of puts a damper on things.