Trading 101

After a sale of equities, ETFs, or options in a cash account, the transaction will typically need to settle before the funds can be withdrawn. Equity and ETF trades settle 1 business day following the trade date (T+1), and option trades settle 1 business day following the trade date (T+1).

Cash Account

Settled Funds

Immediately available as buying power
Immediately available to withdraw

Unsettled Funds in a Cash Account

Immediately available for use to place trades, but closing the position before the funds generated from the closing sale have settled can result in a good-faith violation (GFV). If you earn three good faith violations in a 12-month period, Tradesk will restrict the cash account for 90 days. This means you will only be able to purchase stocks if you have fully settled cash in the account before placing a trade.
If you have 2 or more GFVs, unsettled funds will not be available for trading until the closing trade has settled

Margin Account

Trading in a margin account allows for the use of unsettled funds to place trades. Proceeds from the sale of positions will immediately be available as buying power.

Monday to Friday / US Eastern Time

Regular Trading Hours: 9:30-4:00pm

Pre-Market Trading: 4:00-9:30am

After-Hours Trading: 4:00-8:00pm 

Please note the additional risks associated with extended hour trading. 

Tradesk does not currently support equity trading on exchanges outside of the US. However, American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) currently are available for trading on the platform.

Buying power, also referred to as excess equity, is the money an investor has available to buy securities in a trading context. Buying power equals the total cash held in the brokerage account plus all available margin. When using margin, your buying power for different stocks varies because each stock has different margin maintenance requirements. 

Cash Account:

In a cash account, the amount of free cash is your buying power. You cannot borrow funds to place trades.

Margin Account:

In a margin account, there are two kinds of buying power: Day-Trade Buying Power (DTBP) and Overnight Buying Power (ONBP).

Day Trade Buying Power refers to the amount available to day trade for the day. Day-trade buying power is equal to the equity in your account at the close of business on the previous day, less the Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) requirements, multiplied by up to four. Each security will have an SRO requirement, which is based on the exchange minimums allowed.

Overnight buying power refers to the money available to buy securities and hold the position overnight. In the majority of cases, this amount is simply double the cash on hand.

Margin trading is only available for margin accounts with no less than $2,000 net account value.

The price at which a security is trading and could presumably be purchased or sold.

There are a number of reasons why your stock order could have been rejected:

Your limit order is too aggressive: 

Your limit order may also be rejected if it fails one of our risk checks. Risk checks help us to identify orders that don't quite make sense in the context of where the stock is currently trading in the market, such as a $1,000 limit sell order for a stock currently trading at $5. This means that your order may be canceled if the price of the security moves significantly away from your limit or stop price and is then seen as too aggressive.

You incorrectly placed a stop order: 

A stop order converts to a market order or a limit order once the stock reaches your stop price. However, if you set a stop order for a stock at its current price, we’ll reject your order. Additionally, if you set a stop order which would execute immediately (e.g., a buy stop order below the current market price, or a sell stop order above the current market price), we’ll reject your order.

Margin call risk: 

Your Good-til-Canceled (GTC) BUY Order(s) could be cancelled if your brokerage account doesn't have enough buying power to support them. Buying power is the amount of money you can use to purchase stocks, options, or cryptocurrencies. You may find yourself with negative buying power if your portfolio value drops below your initial margin requirement. While having negative buying power doesn't necessarily mean that you're in a margin call, we cancel these orders because they would put you at a much higher risk of a margin call.

Limited volume

Your order won’t be filled if there aren’t enough shares available at the specified price or number. This occurs most frequently with large orders placed on low-volume securities. Keep in mind that there must be a buyer and seller on both sides of the trade for an order to execute.

Market open conditions

If a market center starts trading later than market open, you may see delays in your order getting filled. Also, if trading volatility is high, it might prevent the order from filling immediately once the market opens.

When it comes to options, listed equity options don’t begin trading until trading has begun at the primary listing exchange for the underlying stock. This is most common for NYSE symbols, where the opening auction may not occur until a few minutes after 9:30 AM ET.

Extended hours

During extended-hours trading, orders may not fill or have limited tradability due to lower volume and wider price spreads as compared to trading during regular market hours (9:30 AM–4 PM ET). The list of symbols that are eligible for fractional orders may differ from the list of symbols that are eligible for whole-share orders.

Overnight hours

During overnight hours trading, only whole-share limit orders can be traded, and some orders may not fill or have limited tradability due to lower volume and wider spreads as compared to trading during regular market hours. The list of symbols that are eligible for trading during overnight hours will be a subset of those eligible for trading during extended and regular market hours.

Limit or stop price hasn’t been reached

If your stop or limit price hasn’t been reached, your order will remain pending until there’s a buyer or seller willing to trade at your specified price. Keep in mind, the price displayed on the Tradesk app is the last trade price on a Nasdaq exchange (the Nasdaq Stock Market, NASDAQ OMX BX, or NASDAQ OMX PHLX) or the last trade price on BOATS ATS, not the price at which shares are currently available. This means that if there are no shares currently available at your limit price, your trade may not execute—even if your limit price is the same as the price displayed.

Limit price reached, but order not filled

The success of your limit order isn’t necessarily due to time and price priority on the markets. The order fill rate depends on a number of elements, like market volatility, size and type of order, market conditions, and system performance.

Unstable market conditions

When there is a massive price drop or spike and no purchases or sales, respectively, a market order may not be filled. While rare, this can occur when there are market halts for price volatility.

Tradesk generally does not support opening positions in penny stocks. A penny stock is defined as a security issued by a small company that trades for below $5 per share, typically traded in the over-the-counter (OTC) market.

Tradesk does not support dividend reinvestment at this time. We will provide updates once this feature has been implemented.

You can trade during extended hours by placing limit orders and by selecting "Extended Hours" from the Trading Hours option pulldown menu in the Trading interface.

Pre-market hours are 4:00 AM - 9:30 AM EST and after-hours trading is 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST.  

Please note you may be subject to higher risks due to likely higher fluctuation and/or less liquidity during extended hours trading.

The app provides the number of day trades remaining that you can execute before your account will be considered a Pattern Day Trader account. A minimum of $25,000 in brokerage equity is required in Pattern Day Trader accounts to place day trades without incurring a restriction. If you exceed the number of day trades remaining, and your account equity is below $25,000, your account will be restricted. For example, (1,1,3,3,3) illustrates that the number of day trades permissible today is one, the number of day trades permissible for tomorrow is also one, and the number of day trades permissible for the day after tomorrow is three, and so on. Please note that each day refers to an open market trading day.

Day Trade Buying Power (Day Trade BP) refers to the buying power available in your account that can be used specifically for placing day trades. Day Trade Buying Power is calculated every day prior to the market opening. The calculation is 4 times your margin excess based on the previous day’s closing prices. Some securities may have higher day trading requirements than others. If you exceed your Day Trade Buying Power, a day trade call will be issued. Day trade calls can only be met by depositing funds.

A day trade is the purchase and sale of the same security on the same day.

Cash Account

In a cash account, day trades will not be counted. There is no limit to make day trades with your settled funds. However, trades placed in a cash account require 1 business day for the funds to fully settle before they can be used to buy and sell again (trade date plus 1 business day). Good-faith violations occur when the purchase of a security uses funds that have yet to settle in the account. If you make day trades with a cash account while you do not have enough settled funds, you may receive good-faith violations (GFVs).

Margin Account

According to regulatory rules, ordinary investors can make at most 3 day trades within 5 business days. If you want to make more day trades, please keep the account balance no less than $25,000.

As a PDT, you must maintain a minimum equity of $25,000 to be eligible for unlimited day trades.

Open P/L is the profits or losses of your open positions at the current market price. Closed positions will not be counted in Open P/L.

Today's P/L is the profits or losses of the current day. It is calculated from the close of the previous day to the current trading day.

The amount of Net Assets refers to the sum of your cash balance and securities market value.