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While all investments have some inherent level of risk, day trading is considered by the SEC to have significantly higher risk than buy and hold strategies. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved amendments to [[self-regulatory organization]] rules to address the intraday risks associated with customers conducting day trading. The rule amendments require that equity and maintenance margin be deposited and maintained in customer accounts that engage in a pattern of day trading in amounts sufficient to support the risks associated with such trading activities.
The SEC believes that people whose account equity is less than $25,000 may represent less-sophisticated traders, who may be less able to handle the losses that may be associated with day trades. This is along a similar line of reasoning that [[hedge fund]] investors typically must have a net worth in excess of $1 million. In other words, the SEC uses the account size of the trader as a measure of the sophistication of the trader. This rule essentially works to restrict poorer traders from day trading by disabling the
One argument made by opponents of the rule is that the requirement is "governmental paternalism" and anti-competitive in a sense that it puts the government in the position of protecting investors/traders from themselves thus hindering the ideals of the free markets. Consequently, it is also seen to obstruct the efficiency of markets by unfairly forcing small retail investors to use [[bulge bracket]] firms to invest/trade on their behalf thereby protecting the commissions bulge bracket firms earn on their retail businesses.
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