Cash vs Margin Account
This setting controls how quickly the money from a closed trade becomes available again during the day. You'll find it on the Strategies page in the Account Settings card, as a toggle between Cash and Margin.
Cash account (the default)
On a Cash account, each dollar is used once per trading day. When a trade closes, the cash it freed up — plus any profit — doesn't become available for a new trade until it settles overnight. This mirrors how a standard cash brokerage account works, and it's the safer, more predictable default.
Margin account
On a Margin account, the money recycles immediately. The instant a trade closes, the capital it used and any realized profit are available again for the very next trade — no waiting for overnight settlement. This lets an active strategy put the same dollars to work several times in one session.
Example
You have $5,000 working and a trade closes for a $400 profit. On a Cash account, that $5,400 is available again tomorrow. On a Margin account, the full $5,400 is ready for your next trade the moment the winner closes — so a busy strategy can keep trading without sitting idle.
Warning
Margin mode only works if your tastytrade account is actually margin-enabled. Turning it on here doesn't grant margin at your broker — it just tells the bot it's allowed to reuse settled-same-day funds. If you're not sure, leave it on Cash.
This setting pairs with Capital Allocation, which decides how much each strategy may spend; Cash vs Margin decides how often that budget refreshes during the day.
Try it in the Backtest first
The Backtest page has the very same Cash / Margin switch, in its Account Setup section — so you can see the difference against your real history before changing anything live. It starts on whatever your live account is set to, and you can flip it to compare the two.
On a Cash backtest, once the day's starting capital is spent, later alerts that day are skipped for lack of funds (they show up in the "skipped" count). On a Margin backtest, each closed trade's cash and profit come straight back, so those later alerts can still be taken. Turn on No Daily Trade Limit (in Trade Limits) alongside Margin to model a day where you take every signal and let the same dollars work over and over.
Example
Run a busy day on a $5,000 starting balance twice. On Cash, you might get five trades in before the money is tied up, and the rest of the day's alerts are skipped. Switch to Margin and re-run: as each winner closes, its cash frees up, so you take far more of the day's alerts — and the ending balance reflects reusing that capital all session.