What is Buying Power?
In your Public account, you will see funds listed under Buying Power. Your buying power is the amount of funds you have available for purchasing assets.
Buying power includes your settled funds. It may not include funds that are still settling from trades or recent deposits. It will not include funds that have already been used for purchases.
What are Settled and Unsettled funds?
Settlement for Deposits: When you initiate a deposit into your Public account, there are verification processes that take place between our processing partners and your bank. While deposits are processing, the funds are considered unsettled. Once deposits into your Public account have fully processed, the funds are considered settled. There is a 6-business day settlement time for deposits into your Public account.
Settlement for Trades: After a trade, there is a settlement process as well. Trade settlement is the period of time when the purchased assets are delivered, and the seller receives funds. Funds from a trade settle when the trade settles. Please keep in mind that various asset classes may have different settlement periods.
How does Options Buying Power differ?
Options buying power specifically refers to the amount of funds you have available for purchasing Options. Since Options are more volatile and risky than other asset classes, there may be times when your Options buying power is lower than your buying power available to purchase stocks, ETFs, crypto, bonds, and treasuries.
Your Options buying power may exclude unsettled deposits, including instant deposits, if your account has previously had an ACH reversal, your account has restrictions, or due to the results of a recent balance check performed by our systems.
For further questions contact Member Support via in-app chat or email at support@public.com.