Yes, options count as day trades. If you buy and sell the same options contract in a single market session, or short and cover it the same day, FINRA counts that round trip as a day trade under the same Pattern Day Trader rules that apply to stocks.1FINRA. Day Trading Hit four of those round trips in any rolling five business days and your broker will flag you as a Pattern Day Trader, which locks your account into a $25,000 minimum equity requirement.
What Counts as a Day Trade for Options
A day trade is opening and closing the same position during a single market session. For options, the contract on both sides of the round trip has to match exactly: same underlying, same type (call or put), same strike, and same expiration.1FINRA. Day Trading Buy ten SPY April 500 calls in the morning and sell those same ten contracts in the afternoon, and that’s one day trade.
Direction doesn’t matter. Selling to open a put Tuesday morning and buying it back Tuesday afternoon is a day trade, even though you started short. What matters is that the open and close happen in the same session.
Closing a position you opened on a prior day is not a day trade, no matter how fast you move. If you bought calls Monday and sell them Tuesday, that’s a regular overnight trade. The round trip has to start and finish on the same calendar day to count.
Spreads and Multi-Leg Strategies
Vertical spreads and other multi-leg strategies get their own counting rules, and how you execute matters more than what you trade. When all legs are opened in a single order and closed in a single order on the same day, FINRA treats the entire spread as one day trade.2Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Guide to Updated Interpretations of FINRA Rule 4210 That’s the efficient path for active spread traders.
Leg into the spread with separate orders, though, and each leg that opens and closes within the session counts as its own day trade.2Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Guide to Updated Interpretations of FINRA Rule 4210 A bull call spread legged in and out individually can burn two day trades instead of one. This is where many spread traders unknowingly run up their count. The broker needs a written record showing the legs were opened and closed together to apply the single-trade treatment.
When You Become a Pattern Day Trader
You get flagged as a Pattern Day Trader (PDT) when you execute four or more day trades within any rolling five business day window, provided those day trades make up more than six percent of your total trading activity for that period.1FINRA. Day Trading The window is rolling, not calendar-based. Every new market day, the five-day period shifts forward by one, so your count is always live.
The six percent threshold means someone making hundreds of ordinary trades could technically slip four day trades in without tripping the rule. For most retail options traders focused on intraday plays, that percentage is easily cleared, so assume the four-trade count is the number that matters.
Once the flag is on your account, it tends to stay. Even if you stop day trading for weeks, the broker has a “reasonable belief” based on your history that you’re a pattern day trader and will generally keep the designation.1FINRA. Day Trading Some brokers offer a one-time reset if you tripped the threshold by accident, but that’s a firm-level courtesy, not something FINRA requires, and the broker can refuse if your history suggests the label fits.
The $25,000 Equity Requirement
A flagged account must maintain at least $25,000 in equity in the margin account at all times while day trading.3FINRA. FINRA Rule 4210 – Margin Requirements Equity is the market value of your securities plus cash, minus any margin debt. The balance has to be in place before the trading day starts. You cannot count unrealized gains from the current session toward the threshold.
Some things don’t help you meet it: funds in a linked futures sub-account, pending deposits that haven’t settled, and balances in a separate cash account at the same broker. The requirement attaches to the specific margin account where the day trades happen. If an overnight move or a withdrawal drops your equity below $25,000, your broker will restrict new day trades immediately until you restore the balance.3FINRA. FINRA Rule 4210 – Margin Requirements
What Happens If You Violate the Rules
If you’re flagged as PDT and your equity falls under $25,000, the broker issues a day-trading margin call. You have five business days from the date of the deficiency to deposit enough cash or securities to bring the account back above the threshold.4Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Margin Interpretations Attachment
Miss that window and the account drops into a cash-available-only restriction for 90 days or until the call is met, whichever comes first.4Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Margin Interpretations Attachment During the restriction you can only trade with fully settled funds and get no leverage. Closing existing positions is still allowed, but opening anything new requires cash on hand. Repeat violations can lead to permanent margin restrictions or account termination at the broker’s discretion.
Can You Day Trade Options in a Cash Account?
The PDT rule only applies to margin accounts. FINRA’s guidance says that buying a security, paying for it in full, and selling it the same day is not counted as a day trade under the margin rules.1FINRA. Day Trading So you can buy and sell options the same day in a cash account without triggering the PDT designation, as long as you’re using settled funds for each purchase.
The trade-off is settlement. Options premiums settle T+1, so cash from a sale isn’t available to reuse until the next business day. Sell an option Monday morning and those proceeds settle Tuesday. That limits how many same-day round trips you can realistically make, because each one ties up cash for a full day.
The real hazard in a cash account is freeriding: buying a security with unsettled funds and then selling it before the original purchase settles. This violates Regulation T and can result in a 90-day account freeze during which every purchase must be paid for with settled cash on the trade date.5Investor.gov. Freeriding
Cash accounts are a workable path for occasional same-day options trades without the $25,000 threshold. They don’t work well for anyone trying to actively day trade, because the settlement bottleneck will run you out of available cash after one or two round trips.
A Proposed Change Worth Watching
In January 2026, FINRA filed a proposed rule change with the SEC that would eliminate the Pattern Day Trader designation and replace the current day-trading margin framework with new intraday margin standards.6Federal Register. Notice of Filing of a Proposed Rule Change To Amend FINRA Rule 4210 If approved, the four-trade threshold, the $25,000 minimum, and the 90-day restriction framework would all go away.
As of early 2026, the proposal is still in SEC review and has not been finalized. The SEC extended its timeline for action, so there’s no firm effective date.6Federal Register. Notice of Filing of a Proposed Rule Change To Amend FINRA Rule 4210 Until something changes, the existing rules remain fully in effect, and every same-day options round trip in a margin account still counts.