Hi everyone, In my virtual account buying power seemed pretty straight forward, but I learned the hard way that my virtual account was a margin account, and about the vast differences between margin and cash accounts once I had real skin in the game lol. anyhow, buying power still has me quite confused and everything I can find to read about it is about as clear as mud. I made quite a few trades yesterday, many of them day trades. (as I understand day trading profile only applies to margin accounts?) and at the end of the day I had maybe about $ 200 worth of buying power left, about $ 5,000 in cash and about 5,000 in stocks at close. This morning when the market opened I still had only 200 in buying power, what am I missing here? does it take a while to reset or was it something I did? Hope this makes sense to someone who can explain it to me! please Thanks
The formula apparently varies by broker Equity + Cash - Debit balance-2*margin requirements Tradernovice.com had this and an I.B. formula listed under leverage
Ok, thanks for the info it's much appreciated. I am very new to trading, as I am sure you can tell. Something still seems off but maybe OptionsHouse was glitchy, I will see what Monday brings and learn all that I can in the meantime. Wish I payed more attention in Math class