Track your book
One signed balance — a loan in use, or cash on hand
Positions at market is not what your broker calls account value — the margin loan (or the idle cash) is the difference. Margin / Cash tracks that balance as one signed number: negative while a loan is in use, positive when you are sitting on cash. Log a reading and every money figure upstream starts telling the broker’s truth.
Logging a reading
- Pick the side — Margin loan or Cash on hand — and type the amount. That is the whole quick entry; a fuller form takes equity, buying power and the broker’s cash line as optional context.
- Or import a screenshot of your broker’s balances screen and let the extractor read the numbers — you confirm before anything is saved.
- Each reading carries its own timestamp. Log one whenever the balance changes meaningfully; the chart trends them over time, across zero if you swing from loan to cash.
What a reading changes
Once at least one reading exists, the headline on the dashboard and the portfolio becomes positions at market plus the signed balance — a loan subtracts, cash adds — captioned with its as-of date. That is the figure to compare with your broker’s account value. The gross positions total moves to the labelled line beneath it. A reading of exactly zero keeps positions as the headline with a “no margin loan” caption; a reading older than a week keeps the headline but wears a STALE chip, because a dated number beats a silent jump.
Utilization and the ceiling alert
- Utilization is margin used ÷ equity, shown wherever a reading carries equity and a live loan. With no loan there is no utilization — the tile shows a dash, never a misleading 0%.
- The ceiling alert watches borrowing only, in dollars or utilization percent. A cash-on-hand reading can never trip it, and clearing the loan re-arms it.