Your day trading limit no longer comes from the PDT rule; it comes from maintenance margin you must hold through the entire trading day. Enter your equity and the stock you’re trading, and the calculator on this page shows your maximum intraday position under the FINRA minimums that took effect June 4, 2026, long or short, plus whether a position you already hold has put you in an intraday margin deficit.
Estimates use the FINRA Rule 4210 minimums, last verified June 2026. Your broker’s house requirements control. Educational tool, not financial advice.
How to use the calculator
- Pick a side. Long positions carry a 25 percent maintenance requirement. Shorts run 30 percent of market value with a $5.00 per-share floor on stocks at $5.00 and above; under $5.00 the requirement jumps to the greater of $2.50 per share or 100 percent of market value.
- Enter your account equity and the stock price. Use today’s equity, not your opening deposit. The requirement tracks the current market value of the position, so a stock that rips against your short raises the bar in real time.
- Add your broker’s house requirement if it’s higher. The FINRA numbers are floors. Brokers routinely set 50 percent or more on volatile and low-float names, and the stricter number always wins. The calculator applies whichever is higher.
Switch to the deficit tab to check an existing position: enter your equity, the side, the price, and your share count, and it shows your margin surplus or the exact deficit you owe.
Worked example: $5,000 long versus $5,000 short
Say you have $5,000 of equity and you’re trading an $8.00 stock.
Long: the requirement is 25 percent of position value, so your ceiling is $5,000 divided by 0.25, which is $20,000 of exposure. That’s 2,500 shares at $8.00, or 4:1 intraday leverage.
Short, same stock: 30 percent of $8.00 is $2.40, but the $5.00 per-share floor binds. Your ceiling is $5,000 divided by $5.00, which is 1,000 shares, just $8,000 of exposure at 1.6:1. The floor cuts your short-side size by 60 percent on this stock, and generic margin calculators that only take a flat percentage miss it entirely. Short a $40 stock instead and the 30 percent figure ($12.00 per share) takes over: 416 shares, about $16,640.
The deficit math: suppose that same trader ignores the ceiling and buys $24,000 of stock intraday. Required maintenance is 25 percent of $24,000, which is $6,000, against $5,000 of equity. That’s a $1,000 intraday margin deficit. The de minimis allowance is the lesser of 5 percent of equity ($250) or $1,000, so this one counts, and the broker will expect it covered as promptly as possible by a deposit or by cutting the position.
The formulas behind the numbers
- Maximum long position = account equity ÷ maintenance requirement (25 percent FINRA minimum, or your broker’s higher house rate). At the minimum, that’s 4:1 intraday.
- Maximum short position, stock at $5.00 or above = equity ÷ (the greater of $5.00 per share or 30 percent of the share price), converted to shares.
- Maximum short position, stock under $5.00 = equity ÷ (the greater of $2.50 per share or 100 percent of the share price). On most sub-$5 names this means 1:1 or worse; low-float garbage gets no leverage.
- Intraday margin deficit = required maintenance margin at your intraday peak − account equity, when positive.
- De minimis allowance = the lesser of 5 percent of account equity or $1,000. Deficits at or under it don’t count toward a pattern of failures.
These parameters come straight from the current rule text and FINRA’s adopting notice: the maintenance percentages and per-share floors from FINRA Rule 4210, and the deficit, satisfaction, and de minimis mechanics from Regulatory Notice 26-10, both verified against FINRA.org in June 2026.
What replaced the PDT rule
The SEC approved FINRA’s overhaul on April 14, 2026, and the new intraday margin standards took effect June 4, 2026. The day-trade count, the pattern day trader designation, and the $25,000 minimum are gone in their entirety. In their place, your broker checks that your account held adequate maintenance margin during the trading day, not just at the close. Fall short after a margin-reducing trade and you have an intraday margin deficit; it stays on the books until you satisfy it or 15 business days pass. Make a habit of not covering deficits promptly, with one still open after the fifth business day, and the broker must block you from new shorts or a bigger debit balance for 90 days or until it’s paid. FINRA’s plain-language summary is on its investor insights page.
Two catches worth knowing. First, brokers get a phase-in window through October 20, 2027, so some firms may still run the old PDT-style system for a while; ask yours which regime your account is on before you size up. Second, the $2,000 minimum equity to trade with leverage in a margin account hasn’t changed. Below that, you trade on your own cash. The full breakdown of the new regime, including how brokers can implement it (real-time blocking versus end-of-day calls), lives in our intraday margin requirements explainer; the history of the old rule is in the PDT rule explainer.
Margin capacity is not position sizing
The calculator tells you what you can buy. It says nothing about what you should risk. A $5,000 account with $20,000 of intraday buying power risking 1 percent per trade is still risking $50; at full margin, a 2 percent move against you erases 8 percent of the account in one trade. Work out your share size from your stop distance with the position size calculator and treat margin headroom as the outer fence, not the target. The base rate is brutal either way: most day traders lose money, and leverage makes the losers lose faster.
If you’re running a small account under the new rules, the practical question shifts from “how do I dodge PDT” to “which broker gives me clean execution at my size.” Our picks are in best brokers for small accounts, and the small-account playbook itself is in day trading with less than $25k.
Tracking your trades beats guessing why the account shrank: grab the free trading journal template and we’ll send the weekly setups along with it.
FAQ
Is the pattern day trader rule still in effect?
No. The SEC approved FINRA’s replacement on April 14, 2026, and the new intraday margin standards took effect June 4, 2026. There is no day-trade count, no PDT designation, and no $25,000 minimum. Brokers that need more time can phase in the new system until October 20, 2027, so confirm which regime your account runs on.
How much can I day trade with $5,000?
Up to $20,000 of long exposure intraday at the FINRA minimum of 25 percent of position value, or less wherever your broker sets a higher house requirement. Short capacity depends on the share price because of the per-share floors: about $8,000 on an $8 stock, about $16,640 on a $40 stock.
What is an intraday margin deficit?
The shortfall between the maintenance margin your positions required at their intraday peak and the equity in your account, measured after any trade that reduced what you could withdraw. Your broker expects it satisfied as promptly as possible, by depositing funds or closing positions, and it stays outstanding until covered or 15 business days pass.
Can my broker require more than the FINRA minimums?
Yes. The 25 and 30 percent figures are floors. Brokers set house requirements above them, often 50 percent or more on volatile or hard-to-borrow names, and can raise them intraday. That’s what the house requirement field in the calculator is for.
What happens if I ignore a deficit?
If you make a practice of not covering deficits promptly and one is still open after the fifth business day, your broker must restrict you from opening new short positions or increasing your debit balance for 90 days or until the deficit is satisfied. Deficits at or under the lesser of 5 percent of your equity or $1,000 don’t count toward that pattern.
Do I still need $2,000 to trade on margin?
Yes. The $2,000 minimum equity for leveraged trading in a margin account is unchanged by the new rules. Below it you can keep a margin account open, but you trade only with the cash you have.