Symphony Swaps During Liquidations

When liquidating a symphony in Composer, you may occasionally encounter symphony swaps that help meet broker minimum requirements. Symphony swaps make it possible for your liquidation requests to complete even with small position sizes.

When Do Symphony Swaps Occur During Liquidations?

Symphony swaps during liquidations happen in specific circumstances:

When you're liquidating a symphony with positions too small to meet broker minimum order requirements
When you’re liquidating a symphony with fractional shares that cannot be directly sold due to broker restrictions
When either of the above is true, and other symphonies in your account hold the same assets as those intended to be liquidated

How Symphony Swaps Work During Liquidations

Let's look at an example:

Symphony A (being liquidated) has $3 worth of XYZ stock
Symphony B has $20 worth of XYZ stock
Your broker requires a minimum order size of $5

What happens:

Symphony B swaps $2 worth of XYZ shares to Symphony A to help reach the $5 minimum
Symphony B receives $2 cash back in return
The combined $5 of XYZ shares can now be sold on the market
Symphony A is fully liquidated as requested
Symphony B maintains its total value ($20), but now has $2 more in cash and $2 less in XYZ. Any resulting deviation from the symphony’s desired holdings will be resolved through the normal automated trading process

Symphony swaps are internal exchanges within your account and don't incur trading fees. You can see them in your Symphony History, where they’re labeled “Swaps”.

Broker-Specific Requirements

Different brokers have different minimum requirements that may trigger symphony swaps during liquidations. Symphony swaps make it possible to liquidate symphonies while satisfying minimum order sizes and share quantity rules.

When liquidating, a sale must be for whole share quantities or must liquidate the account’s position entirely.

If that is not the case, the following minimums apply:

Alpaca: Minimum order size of $1 (we pad this by $0.10 to account for potential price fluctuations before trade execution)
Apex: Minimum order size of $5 (we pad this by $0.10 to account for potential price fluctuations before trade execution)

If you're trying to liquidate very small positions across multiple symphonies, Composer will handle multiple symphony swaps as needed to meet the minimum requirements while maintaining the value of non-liquidated symphonies.

Impact on Your Portfolio

A symphony swap caused by a liquidation could have an impact on your portfolio. After a symphony swap is made during liquidation:

The symphony providing shares will have slightly more cash and fewer shares than its target allocation
The total value of the non-liquidated symphony should not change unless there is a change in the value of the symbol that was swapped for cash.
The temporary deviation from the target allocation will be resolved the next time the symphony undergoes automated trading