What is Buying Power, Excess Margin and Available Funds?

Put simply, buying power is the amount of money you have available to invest. You'll find your combined buying power on your order entry screen. Here are a few specifics to know:

Investment Accounts:

Your combined buying power represents the funds currently available from both the Canadian and U.S. sides of your RBC Direct Investing account to complete a trade. This value includes any intraday activity on your account and is calculated in real-time.

Margin Accounts:

With margin accounts, buying power is excess margin and represents the loan value available to you in real time to place trades in your account.

Margin loan values differ depending on the types of investments you hold, their eligibility and price. The status of your orders can also affect the loan value extended to your margin account. See "Order Status" below.

Learn more in Eligible Securities & Margin.

Stocks and options

For stocks and options, loan values are based on the real-time price of securities held in your account throughout the trading day and any trades completed, whether or not the trades have settled.

Fixed income and mutual funds

For fixed income and mutual funds, loan values are based on the previous business day's closing price for securities held in your account and any trades completed in the trading day, whether or not the trades have settled.

Foreign exchange rates used to determine buying power and excess margin are as of the end of the previous business day.

Margin Loan Values – Per Security and Account Level

Order Status: 

• Filled or open buy orders will reduce the available excess margin.
• Filled sell orders will increase excess margin.
• Open sell orders will not affect excess margin.
• Pending funds transfers out will reduce excess margin
• Pending transfers in will not be included in the available excess margin until the funds are transferred into the account.

Find out more in Understanding Margin Accounts. 

Available Funds

For Investment Accounts:

The "Available Funds to Transfer" value displayed on the Transfer Funds page indicates the funds available in your account to complete a transfer out in the selected currency of your RBC Direct Investing account.

Only proceeds from settled trades can be used for transferring funds out of your account.

For Margin Accounts:

The “Available Margin Excess" value displayed on the Transfer Funds page indicates the margin excess available in your account to complete a transfer out in the selected currency of your RBC Direct Investing account. 

The “Cash” Value displayed on the transfer Funds and foreign exchange page indicates the current unsettled cash amount. This value does not include any open orders.

For Bank Accounts:

The “Available Funds to Transfer" represents the “Current Balance" of your RBC Royal Bank account, based on available cash, excluding overdraft and holds.