Thursday, April 16, 2026

YOU ONLY LOSE ONCE

Relaxation of U.S. day-trading rules opens door to YOLO trading, higher risk

“That can mean more freedom to lose money faster,”

Published: April 16, 2026

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island/NEW YORK -- A U.S. regulatory move allowing smaller, everyday investors to engage in more day trading could spur impulsive, high-risk “YOLO,” or “you-only-live-once,” trades and allow eager individual traders to take an even bigger role in driving markets.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late on Tuesday approved a proposal to remove restrictions that limited accounts under US$25,000 to three day trades - defined as the buying and selling of the same security within the same trading day - within five business days, known as the “pattern day trader” rule.

The decision was a win for brokerage firms like Webull and Robinhood and retail traders who now have a much greater ability to buy and sell frequently - but may also take on higher risk with YOLO trades driven by conviction or impulse rather than by research and careful portfolio planning.

“Removing the restriction makes it easier for undercapitalized traders to take more ‘YOLO’ shots intraday,” said Ophir Gottlieb, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Capital Market Laboratories.

“That can mean more freedom to lose money faster,” Gottlieb added.

Gottlieb noted that there will still be some guardrails on retail trading under the new rules, where instead of the $25,000 minimum account size, customers would need to meet certain margin requirements based on their market exposure.

“Retail traders have been a large part of this market since COVID and it’s time to allow more flexibility rather than a hard gate,” he said.

Retail trading on the rise

Prior to 2020, individual investors with small accounts at brokerages like Charles Schwab, Fidelity Investments and other firms accounted for about 15 per cent of trading on U.S. exchanges daily, according to several academic studies.

But the COVID-19 pandemic, together with big leaps in technology and the advent of new trading platforms, helped retail traders to boost that share as high as 25 per cent, and become key players on particularly volatile days.

Retail investors have especially been drawn to trading as markets rallied from their recent slump, and there has been heightened buzz around stocks that attracted retail interest such as footwear-to-AI firm Allbirds, which saw a surge of buying on Wednesday.

“The pattern day trader rule really still restricted the ability of our smaller clients to participate in the markets and reduced their opportunities to take advantage of big market moves,” said Anthony Denier, group president and U.S. CEO at Webull, whose stock soared 11 per cent on Wednesday.

Denier said the average Webull client has about $5,000 in their trading account, far below the $25,000 in assets that, under the pattern day trader rule, would entitle them to engage in more than three day trades within a five-day period.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, created the PDT rule following the popping of the dot-com bubble in 2000, as a way to rein in speculation and limit losses for traders with brokerage accounts that allow them to buy stocks on margin.

Denier and others who have pushed for overturning the rule argued that imposing a $25,000 minimum balance requirement was arbitrary and tilted the playing field in favor of wealthier investors.

The new rules will come into effect 45 days after they are posted on FINRA’s website. FINRA did not immediately respond to a Reuters query on the precise timing.

“This is certainly going to open up opportunities for our smaller customers and democratize access to the markets,” Denier said.

Raises risks

Still, some analysts were wary that the move would nudge investors into taking on more risk.

“I think it will push some of these traders toward riskier bets,” said Garrett DeSimone, head quantitative analyst at OptionMetrics, adding that it would be logical for small investors with limited capital to seek out more bang for their buck.

Higher transaction volumes, particularly among retail investors, tend to translate into greater losses, DeSimone said.

In February, the North American Securities Administrators Association, an investor protection group, said the SEC had not made a solid enough case for changing the rule.

“NASAA said it would be inappropriate to remove or dilute important regulatory guardrails,” said Ben Schiffrin, director of securities policy at Better Markets, which favors stricter oversight of Wall Street.

Webull’s Denier said the change would still leave rules in place to forestall any opening of the risk floodgates.

“Someone with a few thousand dollars won’t just be able to open up a brokerage account and start day-trading options contracts,” he said, noting that traders will still have to meet certain thresholds in terms of knowledge or skills.

“It just wouldn’t be Big Brother saying, ‘You’re not rich enough,’ anymore.”

(Reporting by Suzanne McGee in Providence, RI, Saqib Iqbal Ahmed in New York and Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Megan Davies and Edmund Klamann)

Who’s paying Amazon’s Canadian fuel surcharge, and how much is it?

The Canadian Press

Updated: April 16, 2026

Tipping in tough times: What to do when rising requests strain tight budgets

The Canadian Press

Published: April 16, 2026

With many Canadians facing greater financial constraints, sentiment around tipping culture is shifting.

Over the past few years, customers have seen “suggested” tipping amounts rise, and with more people paying on debit and credit machines instead of cash, they are being asked to tip more often.

Some say they are feeling annoyed at a time when they might be strapped for cash even before the bill arrives, but experts say there are ways to mitigate the issue.

“People need to do a bit of soul checking,” said Stacy Yanchuk Oleksy, CEO of Money Mentors.

“Just because someone asks for 30 per cent on the machine, it doesn’t mean that’s what it warrants; it doesn’t mean that’s what you have to do. And I think we need to get around the culture of tipping, that it’s become this guilt-laden, ‘If you don’t tip, therefore somehow that says something about you,’” she said.

“Sometimes it’s just, you can’t afford it, and that’s OK too.”

Yanchuk Oleksy said she recommends people be intentional about managing their finances and look at their budget to determine what they can afford. For example, it might make sense to pick up their own food instead of tipping for delivery.

She said consumers can also decide to tip differently than what is prescribed.

A recent H&R Block survey found 93 per cent of respondents said they were annoyed when card machines asked for tips on purchases or services that haven’t typically involved gratuities. The same amount said tipping was out of hand and is applied to goods and services they feel are unwarranted.

The survey was conducted from Feb. 19 to Feb. 23 among 1,545 Canadians who are members of the Angus Reid Forum, an online market research platform.

Kelley Keehn, CEO of Money Wise Institute, said that as consumers are being asked to tip at more places, fatigue can set in.

“We kind of moved from tipping for service, and now it’s sometimes tipping for transactions,” she said.

For sit-down meals at a restaurant, Keehn said it is best to continue to tip to support workers, but for things like counter service, it is more optional.

She said it’s also important to factor tipping into a budget, especially for larger ticket items like big family dinners out.

Wayne Smith, a professor and director at the Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Research at Toronto Metropolitan University, said that before the pandemic, it was commonplace to tip about 15 per cent in restaurants.

Today, he said, tipping norms are closer to 20 per cent in restaurants, with the increase in the tip percentage coming alongside increases in the overall price due to inflation.

“The tips are really becoming pricey and costly as a result,” he said. “There are a lot of studies starting to be done around Canada where they’re finding that people just aren’t tipping at all.”

The rise in tipping costs also comes as the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen, Smith said, which could have implications for the way Canadians interact with the service industry.

“If you want to have a real service encounter with people, it’s going to get really expensive. Otherwise, you’re going to be ordering via your phone, picking up your own stuff ... so that gap in the service model is getting wider and wider,” he said.

Overall, Smith said the practice of tipping is a personal choice, and people should tip whatever they feel comfortable with based on their experience.

Neesha Miljanovic, a senior operations manager at Waterworks Food Hall in Toronto, said that sometimes, higher tip options being displayed to customers can push people away from tipping altogether.

Instead, she said lower options can allow some businesses to potentially get more tips through volume.

As for her own tipping practices, Miljanovic said there are some rough guidelines she follows.

For a delivery or takeout experience with minimal interaction, she said she rounds up to the nearest zero and orders directly from a business instead of third-party apps. For counter service, she said she tips between 10 and 15 per cent and generally rounds up change to the nearest dollar or two for bar service.

For a restaurant setting, she said there is a range she will tip based on her experience.

“Fifteen (per cent) for me is terrible service, 18 (per cent) is ‘I’m polite, that was OK,’” Miljanovic said.

“Twenty per cent for me is standard, and then anything above that is an opinion, or a feeling of ‘You really went above and beyond to make my experience incredible here and the whole team did a great job, and I want that to be reflected financially.’”

Overall, she said it’s important for customers to remember that tipping is always voluntary, with the exception of larger groups where gratuity is added automatically.

“You don’t have to tip; the whole thing is supposed to be if you had a good service experience, that you want to give something extra to them, it is not mandatory. On every payment terminal, you can hit zero, you can hit bypass, you can do custom. So there is actually a lot of power in the guest experience to do that,” Miljanovic said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2026.

Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press

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