Avoid pattern day trading protection?

Alpaca Trading
1

Hi !

I recently started to code a trading algorithm bot using alpaca to send bracket orders (on a paper tradings account for now since I am currently in Europe).

My strategy is based on a 30 minutes timeframe and results in multiple orders being placed every day (each one with a with stop loss and take profit).
Therefore I quickly was stopped due to pattern day trading protection.

I know that if you have more than 25,000 dollars on your account this is not an issue, but I want to simulate my strategy with my future portfolio amount (which is much less…).

Is there a way to avoid this “protection” without having 25,000$ ? Is there a type of market where it doesn’t apply ? Should I avoid using bracket orders ?

Any help with this matter will be greatly appreciated.
I’ll also be more than happy to discuss trading strategies.

Thanks !
Theo

2

Hi tjoignant,

I am starting in this world and I have more questions than answers. However, here you can find some well-described insights that might help you find out your doubts.

I would like to add one more question for the community that is in relation to yours. As European, living in Europe (i.e., UK), can we use Alpaca and avoid PDT?

Thank you

3

Hi RiSaMa

Appreciate your answer. I figured out that there is no way to avoid the PDT rule (without funding the account with more than 25,000$) because “all Alpaca Accounts are Margin accounts and that we currently do not support cash accounts” : https://alpaca.markets/learn/pattern-day-trader/

Hopefully in a near future …