Unsettled cash in Webull is money from a stock or option sale that hasn’t finished processing yet. When you sell a security, the trade doesn’t complete instantly. The funds show up in your account as “unsettled cash” during the brief window between when your trade executes and when the transaction officially finalizes through the clearinghouse. Until that process finishes, you can’t withdraw the money and your ability to reinvest it depends on your account type.
Why Cash Takes Time to Settle
Every stock, ETF, and options trade in the U.S. follows what’s called a T+1 settlement cycle. The “T” stands for the trade date, and the “+1” means it takes one business day after that for the transaction to fully settle. So if you sell shares on a Tuesday, the cash from that sale officially settles on Wednesday. If you sell on a Friday, settlement happens on Monday. Holidays push it back further.
This timeline became faster in May 2024, when U.S. stock exchanges moved from T+2 (two business days) to T+1. Before that change, you’d wait an extra day for your funds to clear. The settlement process exists because behind the scenes, the buyer’s broker and the seller’s broker need to exchange the actual shares and money through a central clearinghouse. That handoff takes a business day to finalize.
How Unsettled Cash Affects Your Account
The impact of unsettled cash depends on whether you have a cash account or a margin account on Webull.
In a cash account, you can only trade with settled funds. If you sell $1,000 worth of stock, that $1,000 sits as unsettled cash until the next business day. You can’t use it to buy something new until it clears. Cash accounts don’t provide any leverage or borrowing ability, so you’re working strictly with money that has fully settled. The upside is that cash accounts aren’t subject to the pattern day trader rule, so you can day trade as often as you want, provided you’re only using settled funds.
In a margin account, Webull typically lets you trade with unsettled funds because the broker extends you temporary credit against the incoming settlement. This means you can sell a stock and immediately reinvest that money without waiting a day. The margin account essentially bridges the settlement gap for you. However, this flexibility comes with margin requirements and the possibility of borrowing costs if you’re using more than your settled balance.
Withdrawing Unsettled Cash
Regardless of your account type, you cannot withdraw unsettled cash to your bank account. Webull requires that funds from sales fully settle before they become available for withdrawal. With the current T+1 timeline, that means waiting one business day after the sale executes. If you sell shares on Wednesday morning, you can typically initiate a withdrawal on Thursday. Keep in mind that the withdrawal itself then takes additional time to reach your bank, usually one to three business days depending on your transfer method.
Good Faith Violations
If you have a cash account, you need to be careful about how you use unsettled funds to avoid a good faith violation. This happens when you sell a security that was purchased with unsettled funds, then use those new proceeds to buy yet another security before the original purchase settles. Essentially, you’re stacking trades on top of money that hasn’t cleared yet.
Here’s a concrete example. Say you have $500 in settled cash. You buy Stock A on Monday, then sell Stock A on Monday afternoon for $520. That $520 is now unsettled. If you immediately use that $520 to buy Stock B before the original $500 purchase settles, you’ve committed a good faith violation. The problem is that you sold Stock A before the cash used to buy it had settled, then reinvested those proceeds.
Webull takes these violations seriously. Repeated good faith violations can result in your account being suspended. The simplest way to avoid them in a cash account is to wait for your funds to settle (one business day) before reinvesting proceeds from a sale. In a margin account, this is generally not a concern because the broker covers the settlement gap.
How to Check Your Unsettled Cash
In the Webull app or desktop platform, your account overview displays your total account value, your settled cash, and your buying power. Unsettled cash typically appears as the difference between your total cash balance and your available settled funds. After a sale, watch for the unsettled amount to shift into your settled balance the following business day. If a holiday falls on that next day, expect a one-day delay.
For most active traders, unsettled cash is simply part of the normal rhythm of trading. If you’re in a margin account, you’ll rarely notice it. If you’re in a cash account, keeping track of which funds have settled helps you avoid violations and plan your trades without interruption.