Anyone using Scottrade ever request a Pattern Day Trader reset? I need to know if this is an easy process, as I'm scared to sell a position right now that would result in me being flagged as a PDT and my account being frozen for 90 days. Please Help!!!
I rather sell and make money then hold and lose money. If they freeze you out just request your money and open an account with a new broker. Thank god youâre not Christopher Columbus because we would all be living in Europe arguing about the world being flat.
I was locked by Charles Schwab, not a pleasant experience, my general impression is they couldn't careless, since the law is on their side, they hold your money and nothing you can do about it. TD maybe diff but I doubt it.
Thanks for the replies. Just got off the phone with Scottrade, and it seems there's no way around the rule. My position is stable now (profitable actually) and I may just hold it over night.
BTW, is it just me, or is dictating how one can invest his or her own funds ridiculous? If I want to day trade MY OWN money, then I should be allowed to, without capitalization restrictions!
the law is the law. this is not at ST's discretion. pound it into your newbie head now. p.s. you are not TRADING. you are playing a game. before you can get out of this game mode, you are ripe for self destruction.
Are you emotionally unstable? Or do you purposely conduct yourself in an asinine manner? I never said ST was to blame. I was criticizing the law. P.S. Perhaps I am just "playing a game." But as long as it's profitable, which risk management assures, I'll keep "playing." What's your excuse? I'm guessing you were crushed by the market in the past few days and now you're simply blowing off some steam. Are you completely wiped out? Or have mom and dad bailed you out, so as to save you from facing the lack of intellectual depth that broke you in the first place?
IB allows you to reset, once. I don't know if that's part of the Fed's rule or not. The rule isn't to protect you, it's (as I understand it) to protect the broker who's lending you money at up to a 4:1 ratio, taking the risk that you might blow out your account, yet isn't getting any interest on the money because daytraders are flat at the end of the day. So the rule gives them a bigger cushion of money. It sounds silly to me, too, since (a) someone with $50K can blow out their account, too and (b) even if you exclusively trade long options, which doesn't involve the broker lending you any money at all, you're still liable to be flagged as a PDT.
Cal - the majority of laws and regulations in the markets have come from the amount of lawsuits filed by people who made mistakes and wanted to point the finger at anyone but themselves. After a few multi, multi-million dollar suits and you would push for changes as well if it was your business that was in jeopardy. Of course, the workaround here is to simply trade futures. Where (for now at least) you can open a $2500 account and get $300-$500 daytrading margins. As futures become even more 'mainstream' I think it's a matter of time before account minimums are put into place here. Just pure speculation at this point, but as mentioned above, if lawsuits start to come from the $2500 piker accounts, it may just happen.