Hello there, I'm a designated as a "pattern day trader" and let's say I have 25K in my account. I buy equities for 25K and hold it overnight due to market drop. The next day, if I were to sell it for 25K (break even), What would be my buying power? Should I be able to place any buy orders? With my Scottrade account, after my sale (next day), I do NOT have any buying power and cannot make any purchase. I have to wait until next market day to buy something. Please shed some light on how you folks manage this. Should I be switching my broker? Thanks in advance, P Evans.
Solutions: 1) Wait till you have more money in your account. 2) Transfer some money to a prop firm that will allow you to day trade. 3) Learn to trade futures or forex.
The answer depends on the answers to these: Do you have a margin account? When you say you "have $25K in my account", does that mean you had $25K of settled cash? Was the $25K stock marginable? Were you the recipient in the past 90 days of a day trading margin call that you didn't take care of?