Last verified: July 29, 2026, against FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-10 and each broker’s own published guidance, linked throughout.
No, you no longer need $25,000 to day trade. FINRA eliminated the Pattern Day Trader (PDT) rule and its $25,000 minimum equity requirement, effective June 4, 2026, replacing it with a real-time intraday margin framework. Brokers have until October 2027 to fully implement it, though, and several major brokers’ own help pages still describe the old $25,000 rule as current. Check the table below for your broker’s actual status.
Before vs. after: what actually changed
Sourced directly to FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-10 and SEC Release No. 34-105226, which granted accelerated approval on April 14, 2026.
| Broker | Status | What their page says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Schwab | Confirmed: June 8, 2026 | No longer counts day trades in margin accounts; no PDT flags on new or existing accounts | Schwab |
| Fidelity | Confirmed: June 4, 2026 | New rules in effect; no $25,000 minimum to intraday trade on margin; no day-trade counting | Fidelity |
| tastytrade | Confirmed: June 4, 2026 | PDT rule eliminated; dynamic buying power live | tastytrade |
| E*TRADE | Announced, not yet re-confirmed | Page states they “expect” to implement June 9, 2026; not updated since | E*TRADE |
| Interactive Brokers | Unconfirmed | Own page states accounts “may still be subject to existing PDT rules during FINRA’s transition period, which ends in October 2027” | IBKR |
| Webull | Unconfirmed | Help center still describes the $25,000 threshold, day-trade counting, and PDT flags as current policy | Webull |
| Robinhood | Unconfirmed | No updated US support article found describing the new framework as live | N/A |
| Old rule (pre-June 2026) | New rule (Rule 4210, amended) | |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | 4+ day trades in any 5 business days in a margin account | No trade counting, monitored by real-time equity vs. exposure |
| Minimum equity | $25,000, fixed, if flagged | Standard Reg T $2,000 margin minimum; no PDT-specific floor |
| How buying power was set | Fixed formula tied to prior-day equity | Real-time “intraday margin excess,” updates throughout the day |
| Restriction if under-margined | 90-day freeze if a day-trading margin call went unmet | 90-day restriction still exists, but now triggered by repeatedly failing to satisfy an “intraday margin deficit” (see below) |
| Applies to | Margin accounts only | Margin accounts only |
The rule itself sets no margin percentage. You may see a “15% tier” claim elsewhere online. It isn’t in the notice. What continues to apply is the pre-existing standard Reg 4210 maintenance margin, commonly 25% for most stocks, unchanged by this amendment. If a broker advertises a specific intraday buying-power multiple, that’s a house policy layered on top of the regulatory floor. Check the broker table above for what your firm actually offers.
The 90-day freeze did not go away. Under the new rule, a firm must act if a customer makes a practice of failing to satisfy intraday margin deficits and fails to satisfy one by the close of the fifth business day. At that point, the firm must prevent the customer from opening new short positions or debit balances for 90 calendar days. Small deficits don’t count against you: amounts under the lesser of 5% of account equity or $1,000 are excluded from “making a practice.” Brokers’ own documentation confirms this independently, citing a 90-day restriction after four unmet deficits in a 12-month period. Worth reading if you want a real-world example of how one firm implemented the standard.
Good faith accounts and portfolio margin accounts are excluded from these deficit provisions entirely. Portfolio margin accounts under $5 million now carry their own separate intraday risk margin requirement.
Does this affect my cash account?
No, and this is the most common point of confusion. PDT and intraday margin rules apply only to margin accounts. If you trade in a cash account, none of the above changes anything for you.
What still applies to cash accounts:
- T+1 settlement. U.S. equity trades settle one business day after execution (this has been the standard since the SEC’s settlement-cycle rule took effect in May 2024, unrelated to this year’s margin change). You can only trade with settled funds.
- Good faith violations. Selling a security bought with unsettled funds, before those funds settle, is still a good faith violation and can still restrict your account.
- No day-trade limit. Cash accounts were never subject to the PDT count in the first place, and still aren’t.
If you’ve heard “the PDT rule is gone” and concluded no restrictions apply to you at all, that’s the mistake to correct: margin restrictions changed, cash-account settlement rules did not.
What about the actual margin percentage?
We’re not publishing a single “your intraday buying power is X%” number here, on purpose. The rule itself sets no percentage. It’s a real-time equity-to-exposure standard, not a fixed multiple, and what your account actually gets depends entirely on your broker’s own implementation, which varies (see the table above). A generic estimator would either mislead you or just repeat the standard 25% maintenance-margin figure that predates this change entirely. The broker table is the more honest version of this: check your own firm’s page, linked above, for the number that actually applies to your account.
FAQ
Is the PDT rule gone?
Yes, as a FINRA rule, effective June 4, 2026. Whether it applies to your account depends on whether your specific broker has implemented the change yet. Check the table above.
What replaced the pattern day trader rule?
A real-time intraday margin framework under amended FINRA Rule 4210. Instead of counting day trades and applying a fixed $25,000 threshold, firms now monitor whether your account’s equity is adequate relative to your actual intraday market exposure, continuously.
Do I still need $25,000 to day trade?
No. The PDT-specific $25,000 minimum is eliminated. The standard Reg T $2,000 minimum for margin accounts still applies.
Can I day trade in a cash account now?
You always could, subject to settled-funds rules. PDT never applied to cash accounts. T+1 settlement and good faith violation rules are unchanged.
Is the 90-day account freeze gone?
No. It still exists, but the trigger changed. See the before/after section above.
Does this apply to futures?
No. Futures margin is governed separately, by the exchanges and the CFTC, not by FINRA Rule 4210. This change is specific to equities and options margin accounts at FINRA member broker-dealers.
Sources
- FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-10: the rule text itself
- SEC Release No. 34-105226: accelerated approval order
- FINRA: Understanding the New Intraday Margin Requirements: investor-facing explainer
- Charles Schwab’s implementation page: example of a broker’s own rollout
This page is for informational purposes only and is not trading, legal, or financial advice. Margin trading involves substantial risk, including the risk of losing more than your initial investment. Contact your broker directly to confirm which rules currently apply to your account. For details, see our Legal Disclaimer.