Margin trading lets you borrow funds against the eligible securities in your account to purchase additional securities or act on market opportunities beyond your available cash. This article explains how to turn margin investing on or off, and what to expect when you do.
What is margin investing?
When margin investing is enabled, your borrowing capacity is determined by the value of eligible securities in your account. This can increase your buying power, but it also means you may be subject to margin calls if your account falls below required maintenance levels.
By default, margin investing is enabled on new accounts.
How to enable margin investing
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Go to Buying Power.
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If margin investing is currently disabled, you’ll see an Enable Margin Investing card with your applicable margin rate.
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Tap Enable now.
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Review the confirmation screen, which explains:
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Enabling margin lets you borrow funds to purchase securities and act on market opportunities beyond your available cash.
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Your borrowing capacity is determined by the value of eligible securities in your account.
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Tap Enable now to confirm, or Cancel to go back.
Note: Turning on margin investing does not always grant you immediate borrowing power. If your account’s start-of-day assets are at least $2,000, you’ll gain margin capacity right away. If your account balance is below $2,000, margin investing will be turned on, but you won’t have actual borrowing capacity until your account qualifies — you’ll see a notice in the Margin Details section explaining this.
How to disable margin investing
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Go to Buying Power and tap the settings icon to open Margin Settings.
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Turn off the Margin investing toggle.
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Review the confirmation screen. If your account holds unsecured options, you’ll see an additional notice:
- Option Expiration: Disabling margin investing will not prevent options from being exercised. To ensure an option exercise does not result in a debit, it can be closed prior to end of business on expiration day.
- Tap Disable to confirm, or Cancel to go back.
What happens when you disable margin investing
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Your borrowing power is revoked immediately.
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Your account is limited to cash-only trading.
When you can’t disable margin investing
To disable margin investing, you must first repay any outstanding margin loan in full and resolve any open short positions. The toggle will be grayed out and unavailable if:
| Situation | What you'll see |
| You have an outstanding debit balance | "You cannot disable margin investing due to an outstanding debit. Please settle the balance first and try again later." |
| You have open short positions or pending orders | "You cannot Disable margin investing with open short positions or pending orders. Please resolve these first to avoid a potential account deficit upon settlement." |
| You have both an outstanding debit balance and open short positions | "You cannot disable margin until your debit balance, open shorts, or pending orders are resolved. Please address these first and try again later." |
If you attempt to confirm disabling margin investing and one of these conditions is detected, you’ll see an error message (debit balance issues take priority over open short positions) and will need to resolve the issue before trying again.