After nearly a quarter-century, FINRA has fully retired the day trading margin requirements — including the day-trade-count test for designating a customer a "pattern day trader" and the $25,000 minimum equity requirement that came with it. In their place, Regulatory Notice 26-10 introduces a new intraday margin framework under Rule 4210 that changes how margin departments need to think about risk throughout the trading day, not just at the close.
The amendments took effect June 4, 2026. Firms that need more runway can phase in implementation over an 18-month window, ending October 20, 2027 — but the direction of travel is set, and margin, risk, and operations teams are already being asked by their firms to plan for it.
What the new standard actually measures
The core concept is the "intraday margin deficit" — the highest gap, following a margin-reducing transaction, between the margin required and the equity actually in the account at that point in the trading day. Rather than count day trades and apply a flat equity threshold, the rule asks a more direct question: does the customer have enough equity in the account relative to the market exposure they're carrying right now?
- Real-time monitoring isn't required. Firms can make a single calculation of intraday margin deficit the same way they currently calculate maintenance margin — continuous monitoring is permitted, not mandated.
- Sweep program balances can offset the calculation. Deposits at FDIC-insured banks under a firm's sweep program may be treated as a credit balance for intraday margin purposes, regardless of whether the customer day-trades.
- A 15-business-day satisfaction window applies before an intraday margin deficit is considered unresolved, and a 90-day trading freeze kicks in if a customer develops a pattern of not satisfying deficits by the fifth business day.
- Small deficits get a pass. Shortfalls under 5% of account equity or $1,000, whichever is less, don't count toward establishing a "practice" of non-compliance.
- Portfolio margin accounts under $5 million in equity now need intraday risk margin substantially similar to end-of-day requirements — a new, explicit obligation under amended paragraph (g).
How Compliers Can Help
Margin rule transitions touch operations, risk, and compliance simultaneously, and getting the sequencing right matters. Our Consulting & Staffing team works alongside your existing margin department to map the new intraday requirements onto your current systems, rather than asking you to rebuild from scratch.
Where the 18-month phase-in helps, and where it doesn't
The extended implementation window is useful for firms that need to update margin system logic, retrain staff, and rewrite written supervisory procedures around the new deficit and freeze mechanics. What it doesn't buy firms is time to decide whether to bother complying at all — the old day trading margin rules are gone in their entirety, not optional to keep running in parallel. Firms still calculating margin under the retired pattern day trader framework after the phase-in period closes will be operating on rules that no longer exist.