I have spoken with a few direct access firms, including Schwabs new pet. They have confirmed that daytrading accounts with greater than $25k will be able to be 'turned over' more than 4 times. The best way to trade intraday and not be caught out by clauses in the regulations is to trade one position at a time. Take a newbie with $30k. Assume she trades in $30k blocks. She can enter as many trades as she wants as long as she does each trade in isolation (to reduce risk of being caught out by the margin smallprint). Just think of the implications if this were NOT the case >>> a well-capitalised trader with $200k capital, trading $50k blocks would only be allowed 16 daily roundtrips (200,000*4)/50,000 ... I don't think so! The direct access brokerage industry would be killed within a few months.