Cashclay, I have a question, that I don't expect you to respond to publicly. Just because you can open a securities account with $500 and get 6:1 margin, do you think it's really a good idea? Do you make money? Can you afford to lose those funds? Do you know others on balance that have made money that way. I don't believe its a good idea to trade under funded with too much leverage. I think it sets you up for failure. I think the PDT rule overall is to protect the trader/investor. I wish you well and hope you can beat the odds. Bob
PDT rule, put me out of business shortly after it came out, having to over night hold exposed me to gaps, imho it was too stop retail making money.
Turveyd, Do you really feel that is what regulators wanted? How many traders do you know that can make money consistently with $25K to 30K? It is really hard to make money trading as a business with $500K. Entering any business under funded is just not a great idea on balance.
Yeah I had my own yahoo group, most of us where doing pretty well, with small think 5k accounts, I'd tripled my account in a few months, I honestly think small account retail traders where growing there accounts and taking big money out eventually, which was hurting them. I knew 1 guy, my teacher Quisp who turned 10k into 200k verified within a year. If it wasn't for PDT i honestly think I'd be a millionaire years ago America land of the free lol
I also think the entire start with loads is BS aswell, I've known a few who have started with 100k+, blown it very quickly, then got themselves into huge debt trying to make it back. Yes you might blow it, but better to blow $500 trying, than 100k being properley funded. Start low,,add when required, get good, grow account via trading and add when you can afford.
Well see that the thing. Im learning from a teacher who scalps. Gets in very quickly and gets out. Of course he teaches how to money manage as well. His theory is its better to make 100$ then to lose it. He teaches about setups and what to look for in a stock.
If I were learning to scalp, I'd consider futures. Lots to choose from and they trade all night and most of the day. In the USA, you get a different tax rate too that is better and, you get natural leverage with lower accounts sizes. No PDT also.
So would I. And if unable to fund a futures account, I'd consider spot forex, as a learning/scalping experience, which is what you should be doing, if anything, Cashclay. With $500 (in fact, with a lot less than that) you can open an infinite-granularity account at Oanda, "play with real money" with appropriately minuscule position-sizing, risking no more than $5 (even $1, if you want) on each trade, and gain some experience that way, relatively safely. As so many members here have tried to explain to you in so many threads, what you're trying to do at the moment isn't, for many reasons, a recipe for success.
With the amount of money I started with, FX/Spot account for sure, I trade DAX mainly via FXCM and in the UK there classed as gambling so all profits are TAX free Stocks, you've got to many to watch, your kinda over loading yourself, add in the 2 hours after close to find the next days hot trades, check for news reports on your 20 stock watch list and becomes a very tiring full time job, not that you want for a $500 account.
It depends how you use them. If you do spreadbetting via FXCM, that's tax-free in the UK, but if you trade spot forex with them (I appreciate that Dax isn't spot forex!), that certainly isn't. I think the OP is in Canada ...