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Strategies & Market Trends : DAYTRADING Fundamentals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: exdaytrader76 who wrote (11141)	12/26/2000 9:03:25 AM
From: Apakhabar	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 18137

Datek also allows immediate updating of accounts and they don't reduce buying power for stocks that have been held overnight, sold in the morning, bought back etc. The problem is simple I believe. Firms that update all aspects on the account in real-time do not issue these stupid margin calls, whereas firms that wait until the end of the day for some aspects of updating (marked to market) get "confused" by the selling and buying back of a security. This is probably the one aspect of small direct access firms that is truly behind the curve.

To: exdaytrader76 who wrote (11141)	12/26/2000 11:49:03 AM
From: -	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18137

Schwab actually does follow the rules... it's just that the Direct Access firms have been targeted by NASD for the discriminatory "Pattern day trading" margin rules to be applied. That's rule, when rigorously enforced as many clearing firms are now starting to do, creates a serious disadvantage when trading at a direct access firm, especially if you carry overnights frequently and like to make maximal use of your buying power. The problem is, the direct access firms apparently have zilch for lobbying power with NASD, and so it's "take it or leave it" for us, their customers. For daytraders that don't carry any overnights, this isn't an issue. -Steve