Stock Trading and Other Things

How does the Pattern Day Trader rule work and does it apply to trading options as well?

Public Comments

1. The rules adopt a new term "pattern day trader," which includes any margin customer that day trades (buys then sells or sells short then buys the same security on the same day) four or more times in five business days, provided the number of day trades are more than six percent of the customer's total trading activity for that same five-day period.
Under the rules, a pattern day trader must maintain minimum equity of $25,000 on any day that the customer day trades. The required minimum equity must be in the account prior to any day-trading activities. If the account falls below the $25,000 requirement, the pattern day trader will not be permitted to day trade until the account is restored to the $25,000 minimum equity level
Important - equity does not mean credit balance, it is your ownership in the account.

The rules permit a pattern day trader to trade up to four times the maintenance margin excess in the account as of the close of business of the previous day. If a pattern day trader exceeds the day-trading buying power limitation, the firm will issue a day-trading margin call to the pattern day trader.
The pattern day trader will then have, at most, five business days to deposit funds to meet this day-trading margin call. Until the margin call is met, the day-trading account will be restricted to day-trading buying power of only two times maintenance margin excess based on the customer's daily total trading commitment. If the day-trading margin call is not met by the fifth business day, the account will be further restricted to trading only on a cash available basis for 90 days or until the call is met.

In addition, the rules require that any funds used to meet the day-trading minimum equity requirement or to meet any day-trading margin calls remain in the patter day trader's account for two business days following the close of business on any day when the deposit is required. The rules also prohibit the use of cross-guarantees to meet any of the day-trading margin requirements.

The rule applies to all security transactions in the account, which would include stocks, bonds, and options

2. here is over $480 trillion in the markets worldwide (Walker, 2008)! Many people try to find their piece of the pie learning to day trade; but the risky connotation and the reportedly low long-term success rate makes one question if day trading is really all that it is made out to be, or is it a scam?

Day trading is the buying and selling of various financial instruments with the goal of making a profit from the difference between the buying price and the selling price (Milton, 2008). Such financial instruments include futures contracts, options, currencies, and stocks. It is really no different than if you were to purchase a home for a reasonable price and sell it ten years later for more then you paid, except that when day trading, transactions can take as little as a few seconds. Most criticism comes from the fact that day trading has the potential to make a lot of money very quickly. Many see this as a get-rich-quick-scheme; others accept the risk and eventually learn that this presumption appears to be true. Only a select few learn to win trading and find long-term success. So, what makes these select few different from the majority who end up losing money? The answer, "probabilities".

You see, those who are able to learn to win trading know something about the markets that many people do not understand. This well-kept secret is a simple rule of probabilities, and successful traders have become proficient in using it for their profit. The rule of probabilities simply states that events that have probable outcomes can produce consistent results, if you can get the odds in your favor and there is a large enough sample size.

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