Again, I'm sorry if I'm coming across as obtuse, but they are NOT saying you can't trade when your account dips under 25k, they are saying you can't BORROW the brokers money if your account is under 25k. Max, there is a huge difference there.
No the rule is when your capital is below $25K, you are not allowed to day trade. Period. When I first started off day trading, I didn't have $25K, I wasn't allowed to open a trading account at all in those electronic trading firm not even as an cash account. I had to go to a bank and open a regular trading account.
To me as a trader, PDT is NOT about protecting the brokers and even less about protecting the traders. It's really about control, controlling how a person manages his/her money, controlling how he/she trade, controlling how frequently how he/she trades all based on an arbitrary number without knowing nothing about the trader him/herself. This is NOT right. If you REALLY want to protect the brokers, there are other more effective ways.
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