The primary purpose of the day-trading margin rules is to require that certain levels of equity be deposited and maintained in the margin accounts of active traders, and that these levels be sufficient to support the risks associated with day-trading activities.

Most margin requirements are calculated based on a customer’s securities positions at the end of the trading day. A customer who only day trades does not have a security position at the end of the day upon which a margin calculation would otherwise result in a margin call. Nevertheless, the same customer has generated financial risk throughout the day. The Intraday Margin standard addresses this risk by measuring real-time margin exposure throughout the trading session, rather than relying solely on end-of-day position snapshots.

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