# Confirm buying power before place

Before the agent places, confirm buying power / available cash in the broker (not chat math) so you don’t submit into a reject, partial, or margin surprise. Pair with never-skip-review-before-place, confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat, read-only-quote-before-trade-connector, dry-run-before-first-live-place, size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope. Agent Lane does not place trades, hold wallets, or invent broker UI.

Canonical HTML: https://agentlane.net/guides/confirm-buying-power-before-place/

## Answer first

Before a live place: read buying power or available cash in the official broker UI — not from chat arithmetic, agent memory, or a stale sleeve note. If the venue cannot fund the ticket cleanly, do not submit. Size still comes from written sleeve rules; the human still runs review before place.

## Confirm buying power before place in plain terms

1. **Venue truth first** — open the official buying power / available cash screen for the account or sleeve in play.
2. **Not chat math** — agent summaries, memory, and “we still have ~$X” are not the source of truth.
3. **Ticket must fit** — size from [size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope.md](./size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope.md) must fit what the venue can fund.
4. **Gate at review** — enforce at [never-skip-review-before-place.md](./never-skip-review-before-place.md); reject if BP cannot cover.
5. **Re-check after change** — after fills, cancels, transfers, or idle; confirm fills afterward in [confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md](./confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md).

## Why chat math is the failure mode

- **Stale cash** — [confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md](./confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md).
- **Rejects and partials** — [never-skip-review-before-place.md](./never-skip-review-before-place.md).
- **Margin surprise** — [no-overnight-margin-without-go.md](./no-overnight-margin-without-go.md), [fund-session-ceiling.md](./fund-session-ceiling.md).
- **Hope sizing** — [size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope.md](./size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope.md).

## Shield stack

1. [read-only-quote-before-trade-connector.md](./read-only-quote-before-trade-connector.md) — prove prices before place rights.
2. [dry-run-before-first-live-place.md](./dry-run-before-first-live-place.md) — prove the pipe without live cash.
3. [size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope.md](./size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope.md) — written ticket size rules.
4. Confirm buying power before place (this page) — venue cash/BP covers that ticket.
5. [never-skip-review-before-place.md](./never-skip-review-before-place.md) — human gate enforces the check.
6. [confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md](./confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md) — after-the-fact venue truth.
7. [fund-session-ceiling.md](./fund-session-ceiling.md) — only fund what the session may spend.

## How to run confirm buying power before place

1. Keep review before place on — [never-skip-review-before-place.md](./never-skip-review-before-place.md); no invented UI.
2. Open official buying power / available cash — after prior activity, [confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md](./confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md) and [confirm-cancel-in-broker-not-chat.md](./confirm-cancel-in-broker-not-chat.md) first.
3. Compare ticket to sleeve size rules — [size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope.md](./size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope.md), [one-risk-unit-per-idea.md](./one-risk-unit-per-idea.md); large tickets: [two-person-rule-for-large-places.md](./two-person-rule-for-large-places.md).
4. Reject if cash/BP cannot cover — resize, re-fund only to [fund-session-ceiling.md](./fund-session-ceiling.md) after [rotate-before-raise-balance.md](./rotate-before-raise-balance.md), or skip.
5. Place only after human review; confirm afterward — [confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md](./confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md); first live after novelty: [dry-run-before-first-live-place.md](./dry-run-before-first-live-place.md); quote ladder: [read-only-quote-before-trade-connector.md](./read-only-quote-before-trade-connector.md).
6. Re-check after fills, cancels, transfers, or idle; journal overrides — [journal-every-override.md](./journal-every-override.md), [revoke-before-debug.md](./revoke-before-debug.md).

## Practical checklist

- Official BP/cash screen open before every live place.
- Chat math is not BP.
- Ticket fits sleeve rules and venue cash/BP.
- Reject / resize / skip if it does not fit — no “submit and see.”
- Review before place still on — human enforces the gate.
- Re-check after fill, cancel, transfer, or idle gap.
- Confirm fills afterward in the broker UI.
- Dry run done before first live with a new connector/strategy.
- Overrides journaled if anyone places without reading BP.
- Official paths only — no invented broker UI.

Related: [Write max loss before entry](./write-max-loss-before-entry.md), [No place while unconfirmed fill](./no-place-while-unconfirmed-fill.md), [Confirm symbol before place](./confirm-symbol-before-place.md), [no-market-order-without-go.md](./no-market-order-without-go.md), [reject-agent-place-without-quote.md](./reject-agent-place-without-quote.md), [never-skip-review-before-place.md](./never-skip-review-before-place.md), [confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md](./confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat.md), [read-only-quote-before-trade-connector.md](./read-only-quote-before-trade-connector.md), [dry-run-before-first-live-place.md](./dry-run-before-first-live-place.md), [size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope.md](./size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope.md), [fund-session-ceiling.md](./fund-session-ceiling.md), [confirm-cancel-in-broker-not-chat.md](./confirm-cancel-in-broker-not-chat.md), [one-risk-unit-per-idea.md](./one-risk-unit-per-idea.md), [two-person-rule-for-large-places.md](./two-person-rule-for-large-places.md), [journal-every-override.md](./journal-every-override.md), [no-new-risk-after-session-end.md](./no-new-risk-after-session-end.md).

## FAQ

**What does confirm buying power before place mean?**
Before the agent submits a live place, read buying power or available cash in the official broker UI — not chat math — so you do not submit into a reject, partial, or margin surprise. Pair with never-skip-review-before-place, confirm-fills-in-broker-not-chat, read-only-quote-before-trade-connector, dry-run-before-first-live-place, size-from-sleeve-not-from-hope.

**Do I invent a buying-power broker UI?**
No. Official venue balances/buying-power screen and your written sleeve rules. Agent Lane does not invent UI or read your broker for you.

**Does this replace size from sleeve or review before place?**
No. Size from sleeve is the written risk rule; this page is the venue cash/BP gate before submit; never-skip-review is the human ticket gate; confirm-fills is after-the-fact venue truth. You need the stack.

## Sources

- Canonical HTML: https://agentlane.net/guides/confirm-buying-power-before-place/
- Related shelf: https://agentlane.net/resources/
- Site index: https://agentlane.net/llms.txt

Agent Lane publishes checklists. We do not place trades, hold wallets, invent broker UI, or read your buying power.