I've been daytrading on and off for several years and just ran into something I've never seen before. I use Tradestation as my broker. I bought a position in TQQQ yesterday; held it for less than 1 hr and sold for a profit. I then proceeded to trade numerous stocks the rest of the day. I seldom hold anything overnight. This morning I was unable to place any opening orders so I called TS. They said I had triggered a daytrading margin call. My account has about 65k in it so not an issue w/ the PDT rule limitations. According to the agent, TQQQ has a higher margin requirement which is understandable but I was still allowed to buy a number of shares that put me over the limit and then get a margin call triggering either a 90 day restriction or adding extra funds all for a trade that I closed the same day. Am I missing something here? I can't believe I would have never triggered this before. The platform obviously wont allow me to outbuy my buying power; why did it allow me to outbuy the margin requirements on this stock?
Usually you get a warning unless you committed some other previous infractions. are you getting 4:1 margin with them ?
I assume you didn't lose any money in this instance just a block on trading? I would have thought they would notify you though at the time.
Actually made money; but got a block on trading until I send in more $$ to an account that is totally in cash. I personally believe the software made a mistake because I have had plenty of orders rejected due to buying power constraints. I am sending $$ in but also considering other brokers.
Sending more money in even though it's fully funded and above the 25k threshold of daytrading status. The buying power constraints should lift after the trade settles. Did you call them up for more info ?
I was looking at a 90 day trading block or send in $$. I did talk to a fairly helpful agent at TS; he said the software will not keep you from exceeding your margin requirements. At this point I'm not sure what to think. I have an account w/ TS for several years and have placed thousands of trades but have never had anything like this happen.