How T+1 counts

The settlement date is the day the trade is completed: cash reaches the seller and shares reach the buyer. For most US stock trades that is one business day after the trade date. Weekends do not count, and neither do market holidays, which is why a Friday trade settles on Monday and a trade before a long weekend can take longer. The calculator skips weekends automatically and any holidays you type in, so check the current market holiday calendar before relying on it.

Examples to try

Pick a Friday and the settlement date lands on the following Monday. Add that Monday to the holiday box and it moves to Tuesday, the situation that catches traders out around long weekends. Pick a Wednesday before a holiday Thursday and the trade settles on Friday. In each case the working shows which days were skipped and why.

Why the date matters

You own the shares from the trade date and can sell them straight away. What settlement governs is money. In a cash account, sale proceeds are unsettled until the settlement date, and selling something you bought with unsettled money before that money settles is a good faith violation. Paying for a purchase only with the proceeds of selling the same shares is freeriding, which can restrict the account.

Settlement also lines up the ex-dividend and record dates, which matters for anyone holding or shorting a stock around a dividend. The full explanation is on the settlement date page, and day trading in a cash account shows how the cycle limits how often the same cash can be used.