# Questions about Account Equity Drop

**URL:** <https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/questions-about-account-equity-drop/11930>\
**Category:** Random\
**Created:** [February 28, 2023, 11:01pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/questions-about-account-equity-drop/11930 "2023-02-28T23:01:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![LSylli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/lsylli/32/5054_2.png) [@LSylli](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/LSylli)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 11:01pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/questions-about-account-equity-drop/11930/1 "2023-02-28T23:01:44Z")

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I’ve been testing a relatively high trade to low profit day trading strategy on a paper account recently and noticed that at the start of each day or at the end of business hours for a day (8PM) my account equity will drop. This drop happens even though I am not holding any positions overnight. At first I thought it may have something to do with it being a margin account, but I cannot find anything to suggest that something like margin calls would be the cause. Attached are screenshots that demonstrate what is happening:

 ![1IMAGE](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/alp/original/2X/b/b445b402367162d51bc0963936a430fa4e8051b3.jpeg)  
As you can see the equity dropped from ~293 to ~182

In keeping track of a profit estimate on the client side, I’ve noticed that my account equity drops to about where it should be if I had just added this profit estimate to my opening equity.

Does anyone have an explanation for what is happening?  
Is the equity displayed on the paper account wrong at the EOD and its being set back to what it should be based on trades being settled?  
Would this also be present in a live account?

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**Author:** ![LSylli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/lsylli/32/5054_2.png) [@LSylli](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/LSylli)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/questions-about-account-equity-drop/11930/2 "2023-02-28T23:02:19Z")

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(post deleted by author)

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**Author:** ![Dan\_Whitnable\_Alpaca](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/dan_whitnable_alpaca/32/1658_2.png) [@Dan\_Whitnable\_Alpaca](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/Dan_Whitnable_Alpaca)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 2:04am UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/questions-about-account-equity-drop/11930/3 "2023-03-01T02:04:55Z")

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@LSylli Regulatory fees are calculated after markets close and debited from accounts before markets open the following day. This is the same for both live and paper accounts. Normally the fees are minimal (see [here](https://alpaca.markets/support/regulatory-fees) for how they are calculated). However, if one does a lot of day trading they can add up fast.

Take a look at the calculation. What’s the dollar value of sales and the number of shares sold? (fees are only assessed on sales) Could that be the amount you are seeing debited from the account?

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**Author:** ![LSylli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/lsylli/32/5054_2.png) [@LSylli](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/LSylli)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/questions-about-account-equity-drop/11930/4 "2023-03-01T15:02:32Z")

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I didn’t think about that. It makes sense that the fees would start to add up while trading a lot of shares. I’ll check to see if it works out at the end of today.