On April 14, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) approved a proposed rule change filed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) proposing to replace the current day trading margin provisions in FINRA Rule 4210 with a modern intraday margin standard.¹  More specifically, the amendments to FINRA Rule 4210 would eliminate all day trading concepts from the rule, including the definition of “pattern day trader” and related account equity requirements and “day trading buying power” calculations that only apply to pattern day traders.  In place of those requirements, FINRA is adopting a more general requirement for member firms to monitor and determine whether there are intraday margin deficits in customer margin accounts, regardless of whether the customer engages in day trading.  Member firms can either implement real-time monitoring of customer margin accounts and block trades creating intraday margin deficits or perform an end-of-day calculation and issue a margin call for any intraday margin deficit that the customer must satisfy by the end of the next trading day.

FINRA explains that the new intraday margin standard will ensure that all customers maintain equity in their accounts commensurate with the amount of market exposure that they have throughout the trading day, regardless of whether they engage in day trading.  FINRA further explains that the new intraday margin standard will benefit both customers and member firms by reducing the risks of intraday trading exposures and by giving customers more freedom to participate in the markets using their preferred trading strategies while reducing compliance costs for member firms.  The move to an intraday margin standard has no impact on the current maintenance margin requirements in paragraph (c) of Rule 4210.

I. Current Day Trading Margin Requirements

FINRA Rule 4210 currently includes specific requirements for “pattern day traders,”² which include “any customer who executes four or more day trades within five business days.”³ First, a customer meeting the definition of “pattern day trader” must maintain minimum equity of $25,000 in its account, which must be deposited before the customer may continue day trading and must be maintained in the account at all times.⁴ Second, pattern day traders are prohibited from trading in excess of their “day trading buying power,”⁵ which is defined as “the equity in a customer’s account at the close of business of the previous day, less any maintenance margin requirement prescribed in paragraph (c) of [Rule 4210], multiplied by four for equity securities,” or computed using applicable special maintenance margin requirements pursuant to other provisions of Rule 4210 for non-equity securities.⁶ 

When a pattern day trader exceeds their day trading buying power, a “special maintenance margin deficiency” results, and the broker-dealer is required to issue a “special maintenance margin call.”⁷ If a pattern day trader does not meet the special maintenance margin call within five business days, then they will only be permitted to trade on a cash available basis for 90 days or until the special maintenance margin call is met.⁸ If the pattern day trader does not meet the special maintenance margin call by the fifth business day, then the member is required to deduct the amount of the unmet special maintenance margin call from its net capital on the sixth business day.⁹

II. New Intraday Margin Standard

To implement the new intraday margin standard, FINRA will eliminate the current day trading margin requirements from Rule 4210 and replace them with a new requirement that member firms determine the “intraday margin deficit” for each customer margin account¹⁰ on any day where there is an “IML-reducing transaction” in the account.¹¹ FINRA outlines various parameters for member firms to consider when determining intraday margin deficits¹² and explains that member firms may comply with the requirement to determine intraday margin deficits either by implementing real-time monitoring of customer positions and blocking transactions that would create or increase intraday margin deficits, or by continuing to make a single margin calculation at the end of the day as they do under current requirements.

When an intraday margin deficit is identified, the member firm must require its customer to satisfy the deficit as promptly as possible. The customer may do so either by making deposits into the account or by liquidating positions to increase the account’s maintenance margin excess.  An intraday margin deficit will be considered “satisfied” if, from the end of the day on which the deficit was identified to the end of a subsequent day, the customer has made net deposits or otherwise increased the account’s intraday margin level sufficient to equal the intraday margin deficit.  Any intraday margin deficit will remain outstanding until it is satisfied or until immediately after the close of business on the fifteenth business day after the date that the deficit arose. If a customer makes a practice of failing to satisfy intraday margin deficits promptly, the member firm must “freeze” the customer’s margin account from obtaining additional extensions of credit for 90 days or until the intraday margin deficit is satisfied.

III. Implementation Timeline

FINRA will issue a forthcoming Regulatory Notice announcing the effective date of the amendments to Rule 4210, which will be 45 days after the date of the Regulatory Notice.  In order to comply with the amended version of Rule 4210, member firms will need to update their policies and procedures to replace processes for complying with the current day trading margin requirements with new procedures for determining intraday margin deficits in customer margin accounts, requiring customers to satisfy intraday margin deficits in customer margin accounts promptly, and freezing customer margin accounts from receiving extensions of credit for up to 90 days where necessary.  FINRA’s forthcoming Regulatory Notice will permit firms needing more time to integrate the new intraday margin standard into their operations to phase-in their implementation over a period of 18 months from the date of the Regulatory Notice.