Day Trading

If you are trading stocks listed on the Big Board, then you have to note that the specialist can often take a few minutes from the opening bell before filling orders. If it is a NASDAQ-traded stock, then a market maker may take a minute, or it will execute automatically (though keep in mind that if your order is in before 9:20am Eastern, you are assured the opening price). Either way, you might as well let your order be for the first few minutes of trading. Further a specialist or market maker is NOT obligated to let you out of a pending cancel if the order is due a fill. It would be a courtesy only.

The only other issue is whether your order is actually even due a fill at all. If you are offering stock at $25.75, and someone else is offering $25.70, then you are not even due an execution until the stock at $25.70 has sold (as well as everything in between there and your order). Make sense? So you want to see where the stock is offered before fretting about your own fill.

If you are the offer, then you may need wait to see whether anyone wants to trade with you at the level you specify.

Hope this helps.

For margin accounts, if you're marked as a pattern day trader, additional rules kick in. One example is a $25,000 minimum equity requirement, special margin limits, and additional ways you can get a margin call.

I don't know anything about a rule that blocks you from trading for a week, though if you violate some of the rules, you account can become treated as a cash account for 90 days.

Check this website (and the one it links to) for more details: http://www.patterndaytraderrule.com/

Unbeknownst to you, you are being a risky (also unwanted) customer given your trading with "unsettled funds."

Good luck.

There are technical market sites that provide technical indicators that predict when a stock is over bought or over sold. Many traders use those. That limits trading to once every couple of weeks or even a month or so. Some stocks such as oil stock for example are real good candidates for that type of trading.

Others, such as myself, are fundamentalists. We will buy and hold a stock for years maybe. The daily and weekly cycles do not mean too much to us other than perhaps providing an opportune buying point. After all why settle for 2 or 3 points when there are 20 or 30 to be reaped, maybe more?

There is also the tax question to consider. Taxes on short term trades are considerably more than long term. Another point to consider is as long as a stock is not sold there are no taxes to pay. If a company is a growing company, why sell at all?

There is really no such thing as a trading account. Maybe you are referring to a margin account?

If so, you can purchase up to the full cash balance in the account and sell the entire position(s) same day as long as you did not exceed the cash balance in your account.

You can do this every day without a margin account if you wanted to.

The trades will settle 3 business days one after the other. You don't have to wait until settlement to have funds to buy or sell again.

For example if it was a cash account and you spent it all on the 3 buys Mon and used the proceeds of Tue sale to buy on Wed, you may not be able to sell the Wed buy until the following Monday unless you had enough already settled cash to cover the Wed buy. That might put a damper on your Fri day trade depending upon how much settled cash you had then beyond the Wed buy.

Although, if you had enough cash going into the week for both Mon and Wed buys, you may be able to use the proceeds from Tue sale for Fri trades.

So if you want to make a quick trade in less than 3 days, you have to make sure that you have the margin or settled cash to cover that buy before you would want to sell. So besides the amount available to purchase securities (which might not be settled yet), you have to be aware of what is actually settled when, or day trade buying power.

If you're not using "technical analysis" for day trading, what you're doing is not maximizing your trades. You should be scanning for opportunities based on your technical criteria.
Money Management and position sizing are job #1.

Reading at least one book every six weeks is another must.
Two of my favorites (to start) are;
Trading In The Zone, Mark Douglas
Mastering The Trade, John Carter

You can buy $30000 in stock or $60000 in stock on margin ($120000 if cleared in advance by the brokerage house management and reduced to $60000 by the end of the day) None of these actions change your equity. The only way that your equity goes down to $25000 is if you withdraw or lose $5000.

I don't want to sound harsh, but this is for your own good. Daytrading is for experienced traders. If you don't even understand the basic vocabulary of trading, daytrading is an expensive way to learn.

Becareful, if you read the rule, you must ,MAINTAIN a minimum of $25,000 – big difference.

1. Have descent trading system…Simpler the better.
2. Risk 1-3% of your account for each trade..

3. Money management.
4. Money management.
5. Money management
6. Money management.
7. Money management.
8. Money management.
9. Money management.
10. Money management.

The reason people fail because they don't follow these simple rules and are toooo greedy. Like myself but I'll be sure to come back and follow.