How Buying Power is Calculated

Buying power is your purchasing capacity under current account and margin rules. It reflects your equity and your maintenance margin requirement.

As of June 4, 2026, intraday margin standards under amended FINRA Rule 4210 apply to margin accounts. The primary measure of intraday buying power in a margin account is your Intraday Margin Level (IML). For background on the rule change, see 📄 Pattern Day Trading (PDT) Rule Removed: Intraday Margin Rules.

Margin accounts — Intraday Margin Level (IML)

In a margin account, intraday buying power is governed by your Intraday Margin Level (IML) — the equity in the account minus the maintenance margin requirement on open positions. IML represents the cushion above maintenance.

A related way to think about this is margin excess: the amount by which account equity exceeds the applicable margin requirement. IML is the intraday version of that concept under the amended rule. When IML / margin excess is positive, the account has a cushion above the requirement; when it decreases, available buying power decreases. Opening or increasing a position reduces IML, while closing or reducing a position generally raises it.

If during the trading day a transaction causes the maintenance requirement to exceed equity, the largest such gap is an intraday margin deficit. Clear Street's customer agreement governs the firm's rights and actions with respect to margin deficits. For account-specific guidance, contact support.

For specific IML, maintenance requirement, margin excess, buying power, or intraday margin deficit values on your account, contact support.

How these numbers appear in the platform

In the platform, margin buying power may be shown in a Reg-T Buying Power panel with separate Intraday and Overnight views.

The labels in that panel are related to the concepts above:

Maintenance Margin is the margin requirement on open positions.
Margin Excess is the amount by which account equity exceeds the applicable margin requirement. For intraday purposes, this is closely related to IML.
Multiplier is the factor applied in the buying power calculation where applicable.
Base Buying Power is the buying power amount before considering certain adjustments, such as open orders.
Open Orders may reduce available buying power because pending orders can reserve buying capacity.
Margin Utilization is a measure of how much of the account's available margin capacity is being used.

These fields can change throughout the day as positions, open orders, marks, deposits, withdrawals, fees, margin requirements, firm risk settings, or account permissions change.

Intraday vs. overnight

IML reflects intraday margin under the amended FINRA rule. Positions carried past the close re-margin onto Clear Street's overnight house schedule, which may be stricter than the intraday FINRA floor. Specific overnight house requirements are not published here.

General notes

Buying power / IML updates when deposits clear, withdrawals settle, orders are filled, positions are closed, or marks change.
Buying power / IML may also change if firm risk settings, margin requirements, or account permissions change.
Withdrawals (wires out, ACH out, large fees) reduce buying power / IML the same way an opening trade does.

Trading on margin involves risk, including the risk of losing more than you deposit. For details, read the Margin Trading Disclosures Agreement (PDF).

For account-specific questions about your buying power, intraday margin level, intraday margin deficit, margin call, or restriction, contact support.