I’m looking to make my account a PDT type. Transferring in the required monies to trade as a PDT.
In the past, when using another broker, although I met the required dollar amount to be considered a PDT, I found out last minute that they needed me to call them and ask them to make my account a PDT account.
Is this required with Alpaca? Do I need to send a special request to Alpaca to switch my account to PDT when I have the necessary equity (>$25k) in the account? Or will I automatically be able to day trade, without a special request to Alpaca, after the necessary equity is reached?
@integralBill First off, welcome to Alpaca!
For an account to be ‘flagged’ or set as being a Pattern Day Trader (PDT) then it must exhibit a pattern of day trading. What this means is the account must execute more than 3 day trades within 5 trading days.
So, simply place 4 or more day trades. These could be fractional shares. Something like this will get an account flagged PDT if done in a single day.
buy 1 share AAPL
sell 1 share AAPL
buy 1 share AAPL
sell 1 share AAPL
buy 1 share AAPL
sell 1 share AAPL
buy 1 share AAPL
sell 1 share AAPL
Note that one must have more than $25,000 in equity in the account. Also note the PDT designation is permanent (though there can be a 1 time exception to get it removed). So only get an account designated PDT if one can be sure to maintain more than $25,000 in equity.
Once PDT is set the account will see 4x daytrading margin the following day.
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