FINRA has eliminated the pattern day trader rule requiring retail investors to maintain a minimum $25,000 account balance to execute more than three day trades within a rolling five-day period, a restriction in place for roughly 25 years. The rule, introduced in 2001 following the dot-com volatility surge, was designed to ensure active day traders held sufficient capital to absorb rapid losses. Its removal marks one of the most structurally significant changes to U.S. retail trading access in a generation. The $25,000 threshold had functioned as a de facto barrier, funneling smaller retail participants toward swing trading, options, or offshore brokers to circumvent the limit. With the rule gone, retail brokers will likely see an uptick in active trading accounts and daily order flow from previously excluded smaller-balance investors. The competitive pressure on platforms targeting active traders, think Robinhood, Webull, and similar apps, intensifies immediately, as the addressable market for day trading products expands. Regulators and brokers will now need to assess whether margin controls and risk disclosures adequately replace the capital buffer the old threshold provided.
Indian startups raised $5.2 billion across 501 deals in H1 2026, down 9% in value but up 7% in deal count year-on-year, per the Inc42 Indian Tech Startup Funding Report. The drop is driven by fewer mega-rounds, while AI funding surged 317% and growth-stage deal activity hit a multi-year high.
The BSE Sensex fell 893 points and the Nifty 50 shed 279 points on June 30, 2026, wiping out roughly Rs 6 lakh crore in investor wealth in a single session. Both indices dropped 1.16%, closing at 76,200.68 and 23,824.10 respectively.
Kotak Mahindra Bank shares fell nearly 3% to Rs 397.6 after CEO Ashok Vaswani announced plans to exit the bank. Investor concern now centres on succession timing and whether the bank's ongoing digital and deposit-growth strategy will stay on track.
South Korea's Kospi dropped 3% at Monday's open while Japan's Nikkei fell 1%, as escalating US-Iran conflict triggered a broad risk-off move across Asian markets. South Korea's heavy reliance on Middle East oil imports makes it especially vulnerable to geopolitical shocks of this kind.
