Day Trading Margin Call

S

slyfox

I recently got a day trading margin call because I exceeded the margin funds available for me to trade daily. I received an email notification from my broker that I must deposit $23K for a couple of days and then I could withdraw them. Mind you my balance is over $60,000 with securities and cash. If I do not deposit that money, my account will be in aggregation for 90 days, which means I can still day trade but only once a day.

In all honesty, I do not have the funds easily available now for me to deposit, but want to continue day trading. My question is if I change my broker, and I get away with not having to deal with this margin call, or will it follow me to the other broker. Mind you I have long term equities that I do not wish to sell at this point purchased in early 2009, so I do not wish to sell all positions, convert to cash and wire the funds to my bank account and then re-transfer to my new broker. I would like to transfer everything from broker to broker.

Thanks guys.
 
RE: Mind you my balance is over $60,000 with securities and cash.

You didn't mention what securities those are. It seems that you may be holding some non-marginable securities. For example: penny stocks (generally a stock under $5 is not marginable, but individual brokerage firms may have different rules. Also, the 3x bull/bear ETF's are not 2:1 margin. Only about 110% margin)

Let say your account total balance is $60000 on a given day. But you have $40000 of that in penny stocks or other non-marginable securities, then you have only $20000 left in cash. Then you are limited by the day trading rule (below $25000 for day trading).

= = = = =

RE: If I do not deposit that money, my account will be in aggregation for 90 days, which means I can still day trade but only once a day.

I believe the rule is within that 90 day period, you can only day-trade 3 times. After the third day-trade, you account will be closed.
 
Its 3 day trades in a 5 day period would lead to 90 day lock. Either sell and free up cash, deposit cash or be a PDT. Did you already hit the 3 trades?
 
why would u want to trade when u have a margin call? are u looking to lose more? brokers have the right to liquidate your positions any time. are u looking for trouble?
 
Here is a definition of margin call:

A broker's demand on an investor using margin to deposit additional money or securities so that the margin account is brought up to the minimum maintenance margin. Margin calls occur when a you account value depresses to a value calculated by the broker's particular formula.


You would receive a margin call from a broker if one or more of the securities you had bought (with borrowed money) decreased in value past a certain point. You would be forced either to deposit more money in the account or to sell off some of your assets.
 
Quote from emg:

Here is a definition of margin call:

A broker's demand on an investor using margin to deposit additional money or securities so that the margin account is brought up to the minimum maintenance margin. Margin calls occur when a you account value depresses to a value calculated by the broker's particular formula.


You would receive a margin call from a broker if one or more of the securities you had bought (with borrowed money) decreased in value past a certain point. You would be forced either to deposit more money in the account or to sell off some of your assets.
More...

In other word, either u wire in more money the next trading day or exit your positions.
 
thanks for your response, but I do not have any penny stocks at all.

I also called my broker and he confirmed to me that I am only allowed to day trade once based on my "options buying power" which currently is $49K, but last Friday I actually went over my limit by $23K and that is why they want me now to put up that amount before the day trading restriction is lifted.

Again, my question is if I transfer my account to another broker, will the new broker know about my trade margin call and therefore make the transfer really useless? Your help is greatly appreciated
 
I am not really talking about the margin account, but rather the day trading funds purchasing power margin account. I took this from FINRA:

"The rules permit a pattern day trader to trade up to four times the maintenance margin excess in the account as of the close of business of the previous day. If a pattern day trader exceeds the day-trading buying power limitation, the firm will issue a day-trading margin call to the pattern day trader. The pattern day trader will then have, at most, five business days to deposit funds to meet this day-trading margin call. Until the margin call is met, the day-trading account will be restricted to day-trading buying power of only two times maintenance margin excess based on the customer's daily total trading commitment. If the day-trading margin call is not met by the fifth business day, the account will be further restricted to trading only on a cash available basis for 90 days or until the call is met."

here is the link too:

http://www.finra.org/investors/smartinvesting/advancedinvesting/daytrading/p005906

so it really had nothing to do with margin account, my account even with cash was sufficient to meet the margin account requirements, and I even made almost $3K that day, but went over my margin buying power, but I guess the excitement of greed ( ;( ) got me into this mess.

Now I just wish to know if anybody had that experience before and if they transferred to another broker, did they escape the trading margin call requirement from the first broker.

thanks
 
No, if he is dealing with a place like Tradeking, he could have gotten one of those day trading margin calls without losing money. If push came to shove, the margin call does not follow him to a new place.
 
I am not really talking about the margin account, but rather the day trading funds purchasing power margin account. I took this from FINRA:

"The rules permit a pattern day trader to trade up to four times the maintenance margin excess in the account as of the close of business of the previous day. If a pattern day trader exceeds the day-trading buying power limitation, the firm will issue a day-trading margin call to the pattern day trader. The pattern day trader will then have, at most, five business days to deposit funds to meet this day-trading margin call. Until the margin call is met, the day-trading account will be restricted to day-trading buying power of only two times maintenance margin excess based on the customer's daily total trading commitment. If the day-trading margin call is not met by the fifth business day, the account will be further restricted to trading only on a cash available basis for 90 days or until the call is met."

here is the link too:

http://www.finra.org/investors/smartinvesting/advancedinvesting/daytrading/p005906

so it really had nothing to do with margin account, my account even with cash was sufficient to meet the margin account requirements, and I even made almost $3K that day, but went over my margin buying power, but I guess the excitement of greed ( ;( ) got me into this mess.

Now I just wish to know if anybody had that experience before and if they transferred to another broker, did they escape the trading margin call requirement from the first broker.

thanks
 
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