How does Direct Trading work?
Composer’s Direct Trading feature allows you to manually buy and sell individual stocks, ETFs, and options, outside of automated symphonies.
With Direct Trading, you can:
- Manually buy and sell stocks and ETFs
- Manually trade options contracts
- View these assets separately in your portfolio
- Track all orders (pending and completed) in the order history
Using Direct Trading
You can start a trade by clicking on the Trade & Options button in the top navigation bar. From there, you can:
- Search for the asset you want to trade
- Choose to trade the asset directly or explore options strategies
- Select Buy or Sell
- Choose to trade in shares or dollars when trading the asset directly
Portfolio View
Directly traded assets are displayed in your portfolio holdings. You can:
- Track overall portfolio performance, including manual trades
- View the value of individual holdings
- Initiate new trades directly from these holdings
- View the factsheet for your individual holdings, which includes price charts and fundamental data
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a Trading Pass to use Direct Trading?
No. The Trading Pass is not required for this feature.
Can I sell assets that are held inside a symphony?
No. This feature does not support overriding or selling assets held by a symphony. You can liquidate part of a symphony or all of it by navigating to the symphony and selecting Sell.
Why can’t I find the Trade option for my account?
This feature is available for Individual accounts held with our clearing firm, Alpaca. It is unavailable for Apex Individual or retirement accounts (Roth/Traditional IRAs). If you are unsure who your account is cleared through, please contact our team at help@composer.trade.