Is the Pattern Day Trader Rule Still in Effect?

Under FINRA’s rules, no. The pattern day trader rule stopped being FINRA’s standard on June 4, 2026, when intraday margin requirements took over from it completely, with no day trade count and no 25,000 dollar minimum. At your broker, maybe. FINRA lets firms phase the new standards in until October 20, 2027, and a firm that has not switched can go on applying the old rule until it does. So the answer for your account comes down to which regime your firm runs today.

How the old rule was retired

The change went through in steps. On April 14, 2026, the SEC signed off on FINRA’s Rule 4210 amendments in Release No. 34-105226.

Six days later, FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-10, dated April 20, 2026, set out the result: the new intraday margin standards take over from the whole of the old day trading margin requirements, effective June 4, 2026. Both of the pieces traders knew went with them: the five-day count, and the 25,000 dollar equity floor.

Regulatory Notice 26-11 followed on May 19, 2026. It added interpretations of the new rule that took effect on the same June 4 date.

Then comes the transition period. Firms that need longer may stretch their rollout to October 20, 2027, and until a given firm makes the move it may keep running the day trading rules it had before, which means two traders with identical balances and identical trades can be living under different rules this year for no reason other than where their accounts are held.

What the old rule did

Under the version of Rule 4210 that firms in transition still use, a margin customer becomes a pattern day trader after making at least four day trades inside any five business days, as long as those day trades are more than six percent of the account’s trades over the same five days. A flagged account then needs 25,000 dollars of equity on any day it day trades.

Fall short and new day trades are blocked. Buying and holding still works.

What took its place

The new test looks at exposure. Whenever a margin account buys stock or sells short during a day, the firm works out the largest gap, after those trades, between the margin the account must carry and the equity in it. That gap is the intraday margin deficit, and it has to be paid promptly.

FINRA still sets maintenance at a minimum of 25% of what the account’s long margin-eligible stock is worth. Firms can set it higher.

They can also run the test differently. A firm may block a trade in real time if it would open a deficit, or it may calculate once after the close and send a call. The mechanics, payment deadlines and restrictions are laid out under intraday margin requirements.

One week, two regimes

All the figures here are hypothetical. A margin account holds 6,000 dollars of equity and no positions, the firm uses FINRA’s 25% minimum, prices stay flat during each round trip, and there are no commissions.

Under the old rule the account was shut out of day trading by Thursday. Under the new test the first four days never register, because the account stayed inside its maintenance requirement each time, and Friday produces a 1,500 dollar deficit that has to be met even though the shares were sold the same afternoon.

The new test is the looser of the two for a small account. The trade count stops mattering, and the size of each position starts to.

A firm that blocks deficit trades in real time would simply refuse Friday’s buy. At a firm that calculates after the close, the deficit arrives as a bill, and it has a clock on it. It remains outstanding until it is met, or at the latest until the end of business on the 15th business day from the day it appeared. Missing the fifth business day matters for a customer whose practice is to pay late, since the firm then has to impose a 90 calendar day restriction, lifted early once the deficit is paid. Small deficits don’t build that record. Deficits no bigger than 5% of equity or 1,000 dollars, whichever is smaller, are left out. Here 5% of 6,000 is 300, below 1,000, so the cutoff is 300 and the 1,500 deficit counts.

What carries over unchanged

To trade on margin at all, an account still needs 2,000 dollars of equity. The 25% maintenance floor is still there, and so are house requirements above it. A drop in prices while you hold overnight can still bring a margin call, whatever happened during the day.

Cash accounts were never part of it

The pattern day trader rule only ever applied to margin accounts. A cash account had no day trade count before June 4, 2026 and has none now.

What limits it is settled cash. A good faith violation comes from buying with proceeds that haven’t settled, then selling that purchase before they do, and paying for a purchase with the sale of that same purchase is freeriding. Both still apply. The settlement mechanics are in can you day trade in a cash account.

Finding out which rule your account is under

Ask your firm directly. Its answer is the only one that settles it.

• Which rules apply to your account today.
• The date it plans to switch, if it hasn’t.
• Whether it blocks deficit trades or bills them after the close.
• Its house maintenance requirement.

The account agreement and the firm’s margin disclosure statement should also describe the regime in force. If either still talks about a day trade count and a 25,000 dollar minimum, assume the old rule applies until the firm tells you otherwise in writing.

Other account and settlement questions are answered in the trading FAQs.