Free Tool

PDT Rule Calculator: Day Trade Tracker

Log the day trades you have already executed and see how many of your three remain inside the rolling five-business-day window, the date each one rolls off, and when the next slot opens. Everything runs in your browser.

Your account

The PDT equity threshold is $25,000.

Day trades executed

    Trades are saved in your browser only — nothing is sent to XeanVI or stored on a server.

    Rolling window status

    Day trades used 3 of 3 inside the last 5 business days
    Remaining now 0
    Next slot available 2026-08-24
    Window covers 2026-08-17 → 2026-08-23
    Account type Margin, under $25k

    This tracker counts only the trades you enter here. It has no connection to your brokerage account and does not know your broker’s actual day trade count — brokers apply their own interpretations, particularly around partial closes and re-entries. The window skips Saturdays and Sundays but does not account for market holidays, so a week containing a holiday will roll off one day later than shown. Treat the output as a planning aid and defer to your broker’s number.

    What the PDT rule actually is

    The pattern day trader rule is a FINRA margin requirement. If a margin account executes four or more day trades within five business days, the broker designates it a pattern day trader, and that designation carries a $25,000 minimum equity requirement. Fall below it and the account is generally restricted to closing transactions until equity is restored or the flag is lifted.

    The practical consequence for a smaller account is that three day trades is the working ceiling per rolling window. Not three per calendar week — three inside a window that moves forward every business day, which is what makes the rule easy to breach by accident.

    What counts as a day trade

    Opening and closing the same security on the same trading day, in the same account. Buy Monday and sell Tuesday and it is not a day trade. Two round trips in the same name on the same day may count as one or two depending on your broker. Options and equities both count. Trades in a separate cash account do not feed a margin account’s tally.

    How the rolling window works

    The window is the last five business days, not five calendar days, and it advances daily. A trade does not expire five days after you take it in the colloquial sense — it drops out once five business days have passed, which is what the roll-off column beside each trade shows.

    Work through the example the tracker loads by default. Three day trades on Monday 17 August, Wednesday 19 August, and Friday 21 August, in a margin account holding $8,000. As of Sunday 23 August, the window covers the five business days from the 17th to the 21st, and all three trades sit inside it — 3 of 3 used, 0 remaining, at limit. A fourth trade before anything rolls off triggers the designation.

    The Monday trade rolls off five business days later: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, then Monday 24 August, because the weekend does not count. So the next slot opens on the 24th, the Wednesday trade frees a slot on the 26th, and the Friday trade on the 28th. Note what this means in practice — you regain capacity one trade at a time, not all three at once.

    What happens if you get flagged

    The account is marked as a pattern day trader and, below $25,000 equity, is typically restricted to closing positions until equity is met. Some brokers offer a one-time reset; that is a courtesy, not a right, and policies differ. The flag generally persists on the account rather than expiring quietly.

    The uncomfortable part is that the fourth trade is rarely a planned one. It is the revenge trade after two losses, or the setup that looked too clean to skip. A tracker helps you see the constraint; it cannot enforce it.

    Making the limit a rule instead of a decision

    This is where automation earns its keep. Software that gates orders against your rules can simply refuse the fourth trade — there is nobody to negotiate with, and no rationalisation available at the moment it matters most. That is the same principle behind sizing every position from a fixed risk figure rather than a share count, which our position size calculator works through.

    We covered the margin and PDT mechanics in more depth in day trading rules, margin accounts, and a smarter investment approach, and the arithmetic of small-account growth against the $25,000 threshold in trading bot profitability and the $25,000 PDT rule. Turning any of it into rules that run the same way every session starts with writing the playbook down.

    Common questions

    What is the PDT rule?
    The pattern day trader rule is a FINRA requirement that applies to margin accounts. An account that executes four or more day trades within five business days is designated a pattern day trader, and a pattern day trader must maintain at least 25,000 dollars in account equity to keep day trading. Below that threshold the account is generally restricted to closing transactions until the equity requirement is met or the designation is removed. This page is educational and is not a statement of your broker's policy.
    What counts as a day trade?
    A day trade is opening and closing the same security on the same trading day in the same account. Buying and later selling on a different day is not a day trade. Partial closes and re-entries in the same name on the same day can be counted differently by different brokers, and some brokers count them more strictly than others. Because brokers apply their own interpretations, the authoritative count is always the one shown in your brokerage account.
    Does the PDT rule apply to cash accounts?
    The pattern day trader designation applies to margin accounts, so a cash account is not subject to the four-trades-in-five-days test. Cash accounts are instead constrained by settlement: proceeds must settle before they can be reused, and spending unsettled proceeds can trigger a good faith violation, with repeated violations leading to account restrictions. Neither structure removes risk; they constrain different things.

    This tracker is educational software, not financial, investment, legal, or tax advice, and it is not a statement of any broker’s policy. It counts only what you enter, has no connection to your brokerage account, and does not know your broker’s official day trade count — brokers apply their own interpretations and their number is the one that governs your account. The business-day window ignores market holidays. Rules described here reflect FINRA requirements for margin accounts as generally published and may change; verify current requirements with FINRA and your broker. Trading involves risk, including the risk of losing more than your initial investment when leverage is used, and most day traders lose money. XeanVI is a workflow automation platform and is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser.