A brokerage account whose holder is required to immediately make cash payments on purchases and deliveries on sales of securities, subject to the settlement rules of an exchange (timeframe varies from an exchange to another). A holder of a cash account must deposit money before he/ she start trading. The broker would only use available cash to execute trading orders. As opposed to a margin account, cash account provides safety and cost savings to accountholders because it does not allow its holder to get loans from brokers (that is, a holder of cash account cannot buy on margin).

This account is also known as a special cash account.