| Active traders
must be familiar with the following concepts and
agree to follow all FINRAor Exchange rules
governing: SHORT SALES
The term 'short sale' means any sale of a
security, which the seller does not own, or any
sale, which is consummated by the delivery of a
security, borrowed by, or for the account of the
seller. Per FINRARule 3350, the Short Sale Rule,
one cannot effect a short sale for the account
of a customer or for its own account at or below
the current best (inside) bid when the current
best (inside) bid is below the preceding best
(inside) bid in the security. In addition, the
FINRAhas determined that in order to effect a
'legal' short sale when the current best bid is
lower than the preceding best bid the short sale
must be executed at a price of at least $0.01
point above the current inside bid. For stocks
hard to borrow, short sales must be preceded by
a request to Stock USA Execution Services to make
sure stocks can be borrowed. We, in turn, will
call Penson Financial Services's Stock Loan
Department to ensure the availability of the
stock. If approval is granted by Penson Stock
Loan Department, Stock USA Execution Services will
inform you that the stock can be sold short. If
approval is not received, the security in
question cannot be shorted. You may submit a
list of 10 stocks that will be submitted
automatically every morning for short locates.
If you short a stock not on the list, and you
have not called Stock USA Execution Services for a
locate, the transaction will be cancelled and
you will be responsible for any losses incurred.
Short sales made on stocks not located will
result in a buy-in. All trades that violate
these rules will be put into Stock USA Execution Services error account. All losses will be
charged back to your account. You will not
receive any profit from these trades as they are
illegally gained. Repeated violations of these
rules can result in your account being closed.
Assuming the security in question can be
shorted, the short sale must take place as 'sell
short'. If the trader uses a sell to place a
short sale or over-sells a position, it is
possible that the trade will be executed on a
downtick. This is a violation of FINRARule
3350. The trader is responsible to cover
immediately the position with a corresponding
buy. These corrections must be reported via
e-mail back to Stock USA Execution Services at the end
of the trading day.
MARGIN
There are 2 types of margin - Overnight (2:1)
and Day Trading (4:1). Overnight buying power is
limited to two times the equity at the end of
the preceding day. Positions above two times
equity will result in a margin call. You have 3
business days to cover an overnight call by
either sending in cash for the amount of the
call or liquidating twice the amount of the
call. If you do not cover the amount of the call
within 3 business days, Stock USA Execution Services
will liquidate your position. Day Trading buying
power is applied to stocks that you day trade
(buy and sell in the same day). For accounts
with equity above $25,000USD, the margin is set
at 4:1. There is no limit on the number of
trades. Note that overnight positions must not
exceed 2:1.
For accounts under $25,000USD, buying power
is set at 2:1, and there is a limit of 3 day
trades per 5 days period. Note that overnight
positions are not affected by this limitation.
It is the client responsibility to abide by
these rules. The electronic order entry systems
provided to you by Stock USA Execution Services cannot
do this on your behalf.
Day Trading buying power is set at the
beginning of the day and cannot be increased for
the remaining of the day (covering overnight
positions will not increase this number). For
account maintaining a minimum equity of $25,000,
buying power is up to four times your equity
unless you have overnight positions in which
case buying power will be computed as follows:
30% of short positions and 25% of long
positions, less both figures from equity and
double what is left over.
You will receive a margin call if you go over
your day trading buying power at any point
during the day. This call must be met with cash
only within seven business days. If you miss
more then 1 (one) day trading buying power call
PENSON FINANCIAL SERVICES WILL CLOSE YOUR
ACCOUNT.
Stock USA Execution Services will e-mail you with
any margin calls you may receive. The e-mail
notification will be the only notification you
will receive from us pertaining to margin calls,
so please make sure you review your e-mails
everyday. All of these rules must be strictly
adhered to. Penson Financial Services may
choose to stop extending any credit at all for
repeat violators.
EQUITIY REQUIREMENTS
The amount of equity required to open a
day-trading account is $25,000 USD. If your
equity drops below this amount you must deposit
additional funds to get your equity back up to
$25,000. If you do not maintain the minimum
equity, your account will become a regular
margin account with buying power equal to the
cash in the account and limited to 3 day-trades
in a five day period. Position held overnight do
not count as day-trades. Also please note no
check or wire transfers can be sent out unless
there is excess of at least that amount in
margin figuration. |