posted
Logged into Ameritrade this morning & saw this:
Call Alert -- Immediate Action Required.
Dy trade min. eq. call -$24,119.82
A day trade minimum equity call is generated if your account has been identified as a pattern day trading account and has less than $25,000 equity. A day trade minimum equity call can be met by depositing funds or securities.
What does this mean? My acct value is only $2,200
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posted
SEC has a rule that all day traders must have a minimum of US $25,000 in their account.
You are considered a day trader if you make 4 roundtrips in 5 days. So if you buy & sell a stock, any stock, 4 times in 5 days you are considered a day trader.
I looked into this before I opened my Ameritrade account..and it doesn't apply to Canadian Accounts so I'm lucky..
-------------------- Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.
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posted
They gave you a warning so if you continue making day trades and you're still considered a day trader they will first suspend your account and later they can even close it.
The only way you can contnue trading without the $25,000 is if you're not considered a day trader, so that means you can't be making more than 3 round trips in 5 days. The bottom line is you can buy & sell XYZ stock on Monday, buy & sell XYY on Tuesday, and buy & sell XZZ on Wednesday - then you're done with day trading for that week.
You can still be buying stocks and selling them next day..
-------------------- Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.
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posted
They won't suspend him or limit the account right away, it's just that they won't allow anyone to trade as a daytrader without $25,000 in their account. BS if you ask me but it's SEC rule, Ameritrade doesn't have anything to do with it..
-------------------- Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.
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I am able to trade just fine right now as this appears to be only a warning.
I will give this account a rest for a couple days and then "daytrade" only 3 times per week or simply hold a few stocks overnight to show I am not day trading.
posted
It's a computer warning so don't worry for now.
I don't think I could day trade and make sure I'm not considered a daytrader.. on average I make 3-4 roundtrips A DAY and you'd have to makr sure you make 3 or less roundtrips A WEEK.
The other option, as you said, is to buy today and sell tomorrow, maybe watch for good EOD runners and take profit next day.
Good luck to you.
-------------------- Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.
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posted
hey listen, this happened to me and my trading buddy, and you open up your web page and at the top it says margin call...and if you don't answer that call by putting 25k into the account then it freezes up on you...
click on contact us, give them a fluff story and they will give you one "do over" they will mail you a mean letter and give you one do over..
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