Question about day trading. securities that apply

[iliavko]

Hi everyone!
I have a question about day trading. FINRA has the 25K min margin account rule to allow you to buy\sell the same security the same day. My question is, what securities they frefer to? ok FX is excluded, it trades 24h\day But what about futures? ETFs? Index futures, options? Or is the limitation only applicable to corporate stock?
Another question is do you think it's realistic to dy-trade in part-time? Or it requiers 10-12-whatever hours per day?

Thankz!

 

[timsk]

Hi everyone!
I have a question about day trading. FINRA has the 25K min margin account rule to allow you to buy\sell the same security the same day. My question is, what securities they frefer to? ok FX is excluded, it trades 24h\day But what about futures? ETFs? Index futures, options? Or is the limitation only applicable to corporate stock?
Another question is do you think it's realistic to dy-trade in part-time? Or it requiers 10-12-whatever hours per day?

Thankz!

Hi iliavko,
Welcome to T2W.

Margin Rules for Day Trading
The Pattern Day Trading rule applies to U.S. equities, not forex or index futures. I'm not sure whether options and ETFs are included or not; your broker will tell you if no one provides a definitive answer here.

Regarding the time question, ideally you need to be able to focus on it exclusively for an hour or two at a minimum. In other words, trying to actively day trade (as opposed to placing 'set 'n forget' pending orders) while simultaneously doing another job is not recommended. In the U.K., quite a few people start off by trading the last two hours of the U.S. session, i.e. 7.00 - 9.00 pm U.K. time.
Tim.

 

[iliavko]

Thank you for the reply! yeah it's better to ask the broker what securities they consider to be under the FINRA pattern day trader rules.
great forum btw! lot's of good reads
cheers!