

Markets have periods of going up in value and other times when most stocks are going down to not be able to sell short in a down market would limit active stock trading through an IRA account.Ī stock trade takes three business days to become official, or "settle." When you sell stock, the cash is not officially in your account until the settlement date three days later.

Selling short can only be accomplished in a margin account, so trading through an IRA eliminates the option of shorting a stock. Traders profit from falling stocks by selling stocks short and buying them back at a lower price this is called selling short. Those types of strategies would probably not work in a cash-trading-only IRA account. Some stock trading strategies require the leverage provided by a margin account to generate acceptable profits.

As a result, an IRA brokerage account must be a cash account, not a margin account. Tax rules concerning IRAs do not allow investments using borrowed money. A margin account allows you to borrow money from your firm, in the form of a margin loan, to purchase additional securities. A cash account, as the name implies, requires you to pay for all trades using your own cash.
