Recently, a friend asked me how long it takes for money to be credited after selling stocks, and it made me realize that many people still don’t fully understand the settlement system. Actually, there are quite a few differences between the Taiwan stock market and the U.S. stock market. Today, I’d like to share my understanding.

First, let’s talk about Taiwan stocks. In the past, Taiwan used a T+2 settlement system, meaning that if you sold stocks on Monday, you wouldn’t receive the money until Wednesday. That sounds pretty inconvenient, right? Later, in 2022, the Taiwan Stock Exchange introduced a T+0 system—after you sell on the same day, you can get the money on the same day. However, there’s a detail here: T+0 is essentially borrowing money from your broker. The broker advances the funds that would normally take two days to receive, and you pay the broker an interest of about 5%. So, the question of how long it takes for money to be credited after selling stocks in Taiwan has already been resolved—you just have to pay a small cost.

What about the U.S. stock market? It also uses a T+2 system, meaning that after you sell, you have to wait two business days before you can receive the funds. Previously, it was T+3, and in 2017 it was changed to T+2. But here you need to note that different account types in the U.S. have different restrictions.

Cash accounts have stricter rules. You must wait until the funds are fully settled before you can make another trade. If you use unsettled funds to buy stocks, and then sell them on the same day, or if you sell stocks before the settlement date that you haven’t fully paid for, you will face a 90-day account restriction. This is a hassle for people who trade frequently.

To avoid this situation, there are two options. One is to deposit more funds before trading, so you won’t have any unsettled funds issues. The other is to open a margin trading account. With a margin trading account, if your total assets exceed $25,000, you can trade freely an unlimited number of times without being constrained by T+2. And you can short sell and borrow money to trade, which offers much higher flexibility. Of course, the account opening requirements are higher as well; generally, you need to deposit at least $2,000.

So if you want to make small investments and still enjoy the convenience of T+0, is there any other solution to the question of how long it takes for money to be credited after selling stocks? Contracts for Difference (CFDs) are an option. CFDs have a low deposit threshold, operate on a T+0 basis, and allow you to withdraw and deposit funds on the same day. With CFDs, you trade the price difference rather than actually purchasing the underlying asset. They also support two-way trading, and you can set high leverage. Besides stocks, you can also trade various assets such as forex, gold, oil, and cryptocurrencies.

As for whether buying U.S. stocks can be credited on the same day, the answer is yes. As long as you deposit the money into your bank account on the same day, you will have funds available for trading on that day. However, the details depend on how you trade U.S. stocks. If you buy directly through a U.S. stock broker, it’s almost instant. But if you buy U.S. stocks through a Taiwanese broker’s cross-trading arrangement, it depends on each broker’s rules—generally, you need to deposit into your bank account before 8 p.m. on the same day in order to trade on that day.

Overall, the answer to how long it takes for money to be credited after selling stocks differs across different markets and different account types. Taiwan now has a T+0 option. For the U.S., if you want to enjoy T+0, you need to open a margin trading account or consider other investment tools. Which approach to choose still depends on your account size and trading habits.