I have spoken with a few direct access firms, including Schwabs new pet. They have confirmed that daytrading accounts with greater than $25k will be able to be 'turned over' more than 4 times. The best way to trade intraday and not be caught out by clauses in the regulations is to trade one position at a time. Take a newbie with $30k. Assume she trades in $30k blocks. She can enter as many trades as she wants as long as she does each trade in isolation (to reduce risk of being caught out by the margin smallprint). Just think of the implications if this were NOT the case >>> a well-capitalised trader with $200k capital, trading $50k blocks would only be allowed 16 daily roundtrips (200,000*4)/50,000 ... I don't think so! The direct access brokerage industry would be killed within a few months.
A response for js1257 and Tharp I also highly recommend going professional. You will never have to worry about a margin call ever again. I studied for the Series 7 for just over a week and passed with an 84. (It takes a score of better than 70 to pass). My trading has improved tenfold. Just FYI - I trade at Echotrade. The leverage is one thing, they give some low risk traders and spreaders up to 30 to 1 leverage at times I hear. That does help, especially considering there is no charge for that intraday and no more margin calls to worry about. When you also factor in bullets and conversions, you will be so glad you went professional. The drawback with prof. firms used to be the lack of SOES, that is now no more. Echo just added SuperSOES and SelectNET, as more prof. firms will do I am sure. Good luck with your trading.