A trade is considered a day trade when a position in a US or non-US security (Stocks, Stock and Index Options, Warrants, T-Bills or Bonds) is increased ("opened") and thereafter decreased ("closed") within the same trading session. A day trader is a trader who executes 4 or more "day trades" in 5 business days.
Trades executed outside regular trading hours will fall in the regular trading session having the same trade date.
Please Note
- Accounts that have not yet been migrated to the intraday margin standards are still subject to the Pattern Day Trading (PDT) rules and are not yet subject to Intraday Margin Deficit (IMD) calls. For more information on the FINRA rule change please review the FAQs on IMD.
- When trading combination option trades, such as spreads, each leg of the trade is considered a separate transaction for the purposes of counting day trades. For example, if you open and close an option spread with two legs, this would count as two day trades.
Additional Information
- Overview of Pattern Day Trading ("PDT") Rules available on our website