Okay i started and had an account of around 1 thousand, i loved the concept of day trading and heard i needed an account of 25 thousand dollars to not have any restrictions. So now i have 26thousand in my account but i dont understand why the 3 day settlement or regulation T is still in place i thought the barrier for this was 25 thousand. its a CASH account with scottrade.
It is because you have a cash account. You need to get a margin account. Then you will have 4 times your equity as day trade buying power. So your day trading buying power would be $104,000 for marginable stocks based on your $26,000. You will be able to trade in and out of positions all day long and not have to worry about settlement or reg T. If you plan on holding positions overnight, you may be subject to different requirements.
And the two brokers I know about, you have to place 4 or 5 trades in a couple days in order to get the daytrader status. without placing the trades you will never get it.
