I trade pretty often. Mostly OTC, and $3-$5 range stocks too. I feel like the 3 day settlement date after selling is a really big time delay, and I wanted to get some tips from people, so I can optimally trade and sell everyday. I have around $2000 in my account, if that matters.
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If you are using the same broker for each buy and sell order, then that broker should include any funds from a sale of shares, even if it has not settled yet. Example, if you currently have $1000 cash in your account and sell $1000 worth of shares on day 1, then on day 2 you should have available $2000 to buy something else. Even though your sell order on day 1 doesn't settle until day 4, your buy order for day 2 will not settle until day 5. So the funds from the sale on day 1 will always settle before your buy order on day 2 settles. So even though the funds from a sell order cannot be withdrawn from the account until settlement, they should still be available for trading. Check with your broker, as this should be feasable. |
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Margin account. the pattern day trader rule applies to margin accounts though that have a balance of less than $25,000. this means that you can't daytrade more than 3 times in a 5 day period. if you break the pattern day trader rule, your account is locked up for 90 days, unless you switch back to a cash account you only have $2,000 , with a bit more cash (but still under $25,000) you can simply open multiple margin accounts and trade more often, to get around that rule you can also open up a professional account at any prop firm and trade as much as you like. as the pattern day trader rule only applies to retail margin accounts. |
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You will want to verify that you have a margin account if you do not already. If not, and you buy with unsettled funds, your broker may deny use of the funds. |
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I think the best option is simply keeping enough free cash in your account that you can cover any buy order you want to place before the proceeds of your sell order show up in your account. One other option that I think would work for this is to use a margin account. You would be putting the other securities in your account up as collateral and borrowing against them. I don't like the idea of using margin accounts to heavily leverage your portfolio, but if you can discipline yourself to not borrow beyond what is on its way into your account from your sold-but-not-settled securities, I don't see a problem with it. |
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