Can I Day Trade on Merrill Edge?
Merrill Edge has software that can be used for day and swing trading. With a strong commission schedule and no platform fee for MarketPro, this broker-dealer is well worth checking out.
MarketPro®
Short-term traders at Merrill Edge will want to use MarketPro. This is the company’s web-browser platform that used to be a desktop program. Today, it is only available as a browser platform and cannot be launched from a mobile or tablet device. The broker’s website and mobile app can be used as well for day trading, although MarketPro delivers the most advanced experience.
The order ticket on MarketPro has discrete choices for buy to cover and sell short. There are 6 order types:
- Market
- Limit
- Stop quote
- Stop quote limit
- Trailing stop quote
- Trailing stop quote limit
There are only two duration choices (day and GTC).
A faster order experience can be had with the platform’s rapid-fire ticket. This one has red and green buttons with pre-installed order types. They include:
- Sell/buy
- Sell/buy at the market
- Sell/buy at the ask
- Sell/buy at the bid
This order ticket integrates with the platform’s charting window. If it doesn’t show up, simply click on the rapid-fire trade icon (represented by two small horizontal arrows) in a chart’s title bar at the top of the window.
At the top of either ticket, there is a drop-down menu for account switching.
A chart on MarketPro can be displayed the full width of the computer screen. There are many short-term trading resources in the charting window, including drawing tools such as:
- Up Arrow Callout
- Vertical Line
- Fibonacci Arc
- Gann Fan
Merrill says MarketPro has more than 105 technical indicators and 23 drawing tools. Examples of available technical studies include:
- Composite Index
- Aroon Oscillator
- Last Price Line
- Variable Moving Average
A chart has a right-click menu, and this window contains many useful links. Buy and sell are two of them. A chart can be customized with a variety of colors, grid lines, flags, and more gizmos.
Website
Merrill Edge’s website has discrete choices for buy to cover and sell short. The order types include 4 trailing options, with market and limit varieties.
Available Assets for Short-Term Trading
Many investment products at Merrill Edge can be used for short-term trading. Mutual funds are an exception because they are generally not built for intraday trading. The other products, including stocks, options, ETFs, and some fixed-income securities, can be traded in the short term. Trades may come at a cost, depending on how the trade is placed and what the asset is.
Commission Schedule
At Merrill Edge, online trades of stocks, ETFs, and options carry zero commissions, although options still cost $0.65 per contract. Sales are also subject to small regulatory transaction fees. Using a live representative to place a trade adds a fee equal to the lower of $29.95 or 5.00% of the principal amount of the transaction.
Account Types
Merrill Edge offers a wide range of account types that can possibly be used in day trading. IRA
accounts, such as Roth IRAs and self-employed 401k accounts, cannot borrow and therefore cannot trade on margin.
Although taxable accounts will not be able to avoid a Form 1099-B during tax season, they can trade using leverage thanks to Merrill’s margin service.
Margin
A cash account can upgrade to margin status on the Merrill Edge website. The necessary link is on the Forms & Applications page, which can be found under the Help & Settings tab.
Unfortunately, Merrill Edge does not publish one simple universal margin-rate table for every customer. An account’s margin schedule will be affected by the base lending rate, the account’s debit balance, and the total relationship the account owner has with Bank of America, Merrill, and Merrill Edge.
Under the updated day-trading rules, the old $25,000 pattern-day-trader minimum no longer applies. Active traders still need to monitor buying power, margin requirements, unsettled funds, and account restrictions before placing new trades.
Webull as a Substitute
One of the big disadvantages of Merrill Edge for day trading is the lack of margin details on specific securities. None of Merrill’s software displays specific values for specific stocks. Webull’s, however, does do this. Here’s what we found for Payoneer Global, Inc. (with ticker symbol PAYO):
Long day-trading leverage: 1.67
Short day-trading leverage: 0.67
Webull has another valuable resource that Merrill Edge doesn’t have: a desktop platform. During our testing of the tools, we found them more user-friendly than MarketPro. Plus, it has more trade tickets (4 according to our count). Some of these have big buttons for quick trading, while others have very advanced order types, like OTO and OCO. Bracket orders, including stop loss and take profit, are standard fare.
Cryptocurrencies are available for traders at Webull, and these assets are not handled under the securities day-trading rule. Under the updated rules, securities traders also no longer face the old $25k pattern-day-trader minimum, although margin, buying power, and risk controls still apply.
Options are available for trading at Webull, too, and these have no per-contract commissions, which could turn into a big savings for day traders who trade a lot of options.
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Updated on 6/8/2026.
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