Replies to post #2 on Freetrade - CAUTION

[bbgold]

Hi Paula,
From my understanding of the daytrading allowances any sell that is at the margin limit needs to settle before those funds are available again. So if they show you with buying power and you use it then you need to wait until the trade settles before that buying power is available to you again even if you sold the shares. That is the way it was explained to me anyway. Also remember that if you are using your margin that some stocks have different required margin percentages and that some stocks are not marginable. That might be where some buying power is showing your margin availability but if you purchase a stock that has a high or no margin that you get the call, maybe. Your brokerage should have a list of the margin requirements for different stocks. I know that Schwab does not have any margin for Options and I need to be careful about trading below my margin as they give Options No Valuation. I could have 10k in buying power and purchase 5k in options and get a margin call. Not sure if the margin capability of the stocks you are purchasing are the root of your problem or not so you will have to call your broker on it.
I hope that this helps :^)

Good Luck to All! :^)
PLAN the TRADE and TRADE the PLAN!

[Train Guy]

Freetrade is messing you over? Um, if you didn't try doing convoluted trades like that, it probably would work the way it is supposed to. Selling some stock in no way increased your DTBP. It did allow you to buy some other stock and hold it over night without getting a margin call. Just the way you did the trade, I wouldn't have expected all your DTBP to have come back, since some of it was still tied up in the shares you hadn't sold. They have no way of knowing if you are going to sell all the shares, or keep some of them until after the market closes. Therefore they can't give you back all your DTBP.

I think you'll find that if you do more simple straight forward trades it will work the way it is suppose to.