Oh ok, 3 months. Hopefully he didn't violate that testing things out because again, each rt executed after the account's settled cash has been used up.... is one violation. "For it's one, two, three strikes you're out....at the old baaall game"
According to a comment somewhere on the linked page, options settle at T-1 whereas stocks settle at T-3. stocks - Using a cash account can someone trade all day on it? - Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange I was surprised to learn that even with a cash account, the cycling of ones capital is subject to these waiting periods. Maybe that is why it is considered a cash account. If so, this is a really inefficient stumbling block in the use of ones capital. The year is 2024 and the sale of stocks is treated like the way we had to wait for a cashed/deposited check to be fully available? With a T-3, i would have to divide my capital into three parts to be able to use some of it (1/3) each day? Actually it would have to be 25% max capital allocation each day to keep it rolling each day. What happens if you need to make 30 trades a day in an unleveraged account to work your way up to a $25,000 account any time soon? This effectively deleverages cash accounts by a factor of negative FOUR. It's as if you had only 25% of your actual capital. That doesn't sound like "cash" to me!
You are correct on that because any changes affecting "Cash Accounts" would not go into effect until tomorrow the 28th. I did make two trades in excess of my starting balance but I had a wire transfer going in that was not yet posted to my account until after the two trades. So maybe they recognized it in the system before it posted to my account so hopefully all is OK in Mudville and maybe Casey at the Bat did not get strike three. It will be interesting to see if these changes in effect on Tuesday change in anyway the way Cash account operate in the way vanzandt described them as working now. BYW very good explanation Vanzandt. The only thing I am still curious about as in the past on my TOS account the line: Option Buying Power decreased through out the day as I did my day trades and did not increase one bit with a sale and would thus not allow me to place an illegal trade. Probably it was the incoming wire that affected it this time.
Hold on Now: Looks to me that there is unlimited trading in options in a cash account. I started today all in Cash and kept daytrading options even after I had run through all my cash. When I sold something it increased my Option Buying Power and let me invest the cash a second time. I had to go get a tooth pulled (for real) so I liquidated all my positions and all my cash sale proceeds went into the Option Buying Power line. I got back just before the close and ABDE and BLK were starting to move late so it let me take option positions in those to hold overnight. If I am still allowed to trade tomorrow I will let you know how it is looking.
Isn't there a lingo for that already? Net Liquidation Value. And IIRC as long as NLV is above the intradaily margin, you can day trade to your heart's content. Now if you have a margin account with less than $25K, you need to be careful, otherwise you'll get flagged as PDT wanker.
Put the overnight stuff on hold for a second... but lets say you started the day with $5K, you're saying you purchased $5K worth, closed them at some point, and then opened and closed some more? (before the overnight purchases) I'm pretty sure you're gonna get a good faith violation for each of those trades you opened and closed that occurred after the $5K was reached. If this is the case, you probably won't have any daytrading buying power tomorrow. If you didn't do 3 round trips after the $5K, those funds will be available tomorrow, but only for positions you hold overnight tomorrow. If you did do 3, and their system catches it tonight, then you're under the 90 day restriction and those funds won't even be available to buy something to hold tomorrow night. They'll be available Thursday, but henceforth you'll only be able to buy and hold overnight with settled funds. If you start the day with $5K (assuming your in the 90 day penalty box), and you do $4K worth of daytrades, you'll only have $1K for an overnight purchase. That's the way it has always been, and unless options settle instantly now... which may have happened, pretty sure that's how this will play out if you did in fact open and close positions after you exceeded your starting balance. Hopefully you didn't do 3 more. Edit: now there is a chance that maybe they will only hit you with one good faith violation, not 100% sure if it goes by the number of trades, or the calendar date. In which case, you won't be in the penalty box, but those funds still won't be available to daytrade tomorrow.
I did do 2 round trip day-trades after all cash was day-traded one time through. Then with account all in cash I did two trades to hold overnight. Once all the funds were fully day-traded under the old rules it should not have let me trade them one more time to hold over-night. The remaining cash still shows up as "Option Buying Power" on TOS so this is what makes me think something has changed. I have traded this off and on for the the last 15 years or so and previously the Option Buying Power line never increased with a sale. It came down with every purchase and went down to zero and never budged higher.
Well let's see what happens tomorrow. The easy answer is obviously to call Schwab and blow by the CS agent and get to a broker on the trade desk and ask. But give it a run tomorrow and keep us posted. Who wins the NCAA CFP this year? It won't be Illinois. Just a hunch.
Yep, the road just got tougher with the best of the Pac 12 moving in. Might be Ohio State this year. Of course I have a Big Ten bias.
The Suckeyes... ..... as always.... throw in Alabama and MI... the highest paid amateur athletes in college football. I guess amateur no longer applies though. Who's wearing ONON cleats this season?