Someone asks:
I was approved for a margin account with Fidelity recently. What does Intraday Buying Power mean? There is another one called “Available to Trade Without Margin Impact.” Are they important? Can I day trade using the set amount?
Intraday Buying Power is classified as the amount of money available to day trade stocks or option contracts. This buying power in your account will be updated intraday as you execute more trades or withdraw money.
Available to Trade Without Margin Impact is the money you can use to trade without creating a margin debit. If the amount used is more than what is given from your “Intraday Buying Power,” then you can’t day trade that security. It must be held overnight to avoid day trade calls.
If you are new to margin trading, I highly recommend checking out the following resources.
Other Comments:
Mike H:
That’s your settled cash you could day trade with. You can still day trade on a margin account just have to follow PDT rules which limits how many you can do.
Thomas P:
Go to your Fidelity account > Balances, open the “Available to Trade” dropdown. Check “Additional Balances” field for more details.
When you go to place an order, if you deplete your cash balance, it should automatically pull from available margin, which should be noted on the order screen.
Richard Y:
When you buy a stock or option out of your margin account, there will be an “M” symbol right after the number of shares/contracts. When you go over the amount of cash you have, it will show how much you owe. I buy everything on margin, even if there’s money to cover.
Svetlana K:
Don’t get into that. I’ve been a passive investor for a couple years and I’m just now realizing the BASIC mistakes I made as a newbie. I also wanted to jump in head first learn about options, margin calls, and wash sales, but believe me, even the beginner stuff can get complicated when you spread yourself and or investments too thin.
There’s a lot to learn at just the basic level. Learn to read and understand a chart thoroughly first. Your initial investment should be an ETF that tracks the S&P 500 or total stock market index.
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