The same day means the same calendar day. A day trade is when you open a position and close that same position the same calendar day. It begins when the pre-market session opens and ends when the after-hours session ends, that same calendar day.

If you buy one minute before the market closes on May 19 and sell one minute after the market opens on May 20, your trade covered two days and it is not a day trade.

Day trades are for one position in one calendar day. Buying or selling other stocks is not relevant for determining if it was a day trade.

Day trading rules are set by the SEC. Every broker follows the same rules.

Three round trip trades (a buy and a sell) a week make you a day trader. Doesn't matter if they don't happen on the same day. As long as they're in the same week, this is close enough.

This is not day trading, but the pattern of behavior described comes close to violation of the free-riding rules. look 'em up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_trader

Usually, it's when all or most of your positions opened during a day are closed during the same day. I would say it's when the majority is closed during the day.

I know that the SEC labeled a "day trade" as buying shares of a stock and selling it within the same business day but I just want to be sure I understand fully.

If I buy shares of a stock right before the market close & sell those shares the next business day right after the market opens, will that still be considered as a "day trade"?

Also, if what I asked above isn't considered a "day trade", what if I buy shares of one stock before the market closes, sell them the next day after the market opens, buy shares of another stock before the market closes, and sell those shares the next day after the market opens?

For example: say I have $5,000 in my account. I buy $1,000 worth of shares of stock "ABC" towards the end of the trading day on May 19. I sell all of my shares of stock "ABC" on May 20, right after the market opens. Then I buy $2,000 worth of shares of stock "XYZ" towards the end of the trading day on May 20 and sell all of my shares of stock "XYZ" on May 21, after the market opens.

Since I sold shares of stock "ABC" and bought shares of stock "XYZ" within the same trading day, will that be labeled as a day trade?

Lastly, if it depends on the brokerage, does anybody knows how the scenario would go with TD Ameritrade?

Thanks