Why does it take 5 business days to be able to withdraw funds after a trade?

Once you have sold shares it takes five business days for the transaction to settle through the STRATE system. This means that we as a broker do not receive funds for the sale of your shares from the other stock broker (who purchased your shares for their client) and hence the funds are not available for withdrawal. Note that should you sell your shares on Wednesday and there are no public holidays in the following five days then you will be able to withdraw your funds on the following Wednesday. If you sell on a Thursday then the funds will be available the following Thursday and so on. To see what funds are available for withdrawal click on �My account� followed by �transfer cash�. When you purchase shares you will notice that your cash balance on your account reduces by the Rand amount of the purchase. However we as a stock broker only need to settle your purchase five business days later. We reserve the funds in your account (although you do not see it) and you continue to earn interest on those funds for five business days after the purchase.