BREAKING: The SEC just officially eliminated the $25,000 minimum rule for day trading. This is the biggest change to retail trading in 24 years. Since 2001, if you wanted to make more than 3 day trades in a 5 day period, you needed at least $25,000 sitting in your account at all times. If you dropped below that, your broker would lock you out of day trading completely. This rule blocked millions of retail traders from actively participating in markets simply because they did not have enough capital. That rule is now gone. The SEC today approved FINRA's proposed change which replaces the fixed $25,000 requirement with a real time margin system. Instead of a fixed dollar threshold, brokers will now monitor your actual risk exposure throughout the day and adjust your buying power based on the real risk of your positions, not an arbitrary account balance. Now you no longer need $25,000 to day trade. You just need enough margin to cover the actual risk of your open positions.