Replies to post #22833 on NEWBIES BOARD

[Garyst]

Yes, that would be your ticket to having no hassles whatsoever. With Etrade, I believe it is just 1000.00 to open a margin account but to trade on margin you need 2000.00. Being though that we're not interested in trading with margin funds the 2k requirement is no big deal. Also, if your account went below 1k you can still have the capability of having no 3 day settlement period.

Basically, 1k to open a margin account or convert to a margin account if a person is already with Etrade but then there is no minimum requirement to maintain it. You account could go down to $200.00 and you would still be able to buy and sell with no 3 day wait period.

Personally, I would switch to them.

[haber]

I just converted my etrade acct to margin a few weeks ago, and it is a $2k minimum to convert.

Once you've converted (or opened) the account, if you fall below that threshold you can no longer trade on margin, but as Gary said, you still get the instant settlement of funds.

It's worth the switch imo .... having instant clearing of funds is insanely beneficial, especially if you don't have a lot of cash to throw around into various plays. I can't tell you how many runners I missed waiting for cash to clear, and how I've been catching pieces of those runners now and making really nice profits

Make sure you don't violate the weekly daytrade limit, though ... if you haven't already, read up about being labeled a "pattern day trader"