Quote from brokenmarkets:
daytrading went away at the retail brokerage level when the SEC implemenented the patter day trading rule in fall of 2002...small traders could daytrade at the retail accounts in their retirement accounts.
now you need $30,000 or $25,000 just to have the privellege of daytrading and iwth fractions gone with pennies..the easy spread trade was gone and ask and bid don't get filled in illiquid markets. now with HFT frontrunning...retail or even prop traders are have their lunch eaten. by the no risk HFT frontrunners. daytraders at the retail and prop level take all the risk participating and providing the liquidity and these machines take the spread or HFT tax if you are daytrading certain stocks.
most retail brokerage account is way less than $20,000 i' presuming
so daytrading did go away at the retail level for US equities...
as for prop trading and is not retail levell you need to take stipud series 7 estc.. just to daytrade..most retail don't care and cannot pass the series 7...well it's under SEC investigation. series 7 is like one month of and is pretty hard to pass and daytrading is mostly a hobby for most people that was in the market in the late 90's