Cash Account

A cash account is a type of brokerage account in which the investor must pay the full amount for securities purchased.  An investor using a cash account is not allowed to borrow funds from his or her broker-dealer in order to pay for transactions in the account ( trading on margin ). [1]

The credit extension provisions of the Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation T govern an investor’s use of a cash account to purchase securities.  In a cash account, an investor must pay for the purchase of a security before selling it.  If an investor buys and sells a security before paying for it, the investor is “freeriding” which is not permitted under Regulation T and may require the investor’s broker to “freeze” the investor’s cash account for 90 days.  During this 90-day period, an investor may still purchase securities with the cash account, but the investor must fully pay for any purchase on the date of the trade. [1]

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1. US SEC · Investor.gov — Cash Account ↗

Reviewed 23 October 2026. Historical dates and award-time affiliations retain their original context. A review date is not an event date. Background sources are identified separately from official records.