Margin accounts: buying power, margin used, and sizing

If your brokerage account is a margin account, Jorg AI shows and uses three related but different numbers. Knowing which is which prevents most confusion.

The three numbers:

• Cash is your settled, uninvested money. On a fully margined account this can be $0 even while you hold large positions.
• Buying power is forward-looking: what your broker will let you spend right now, INCLUDING what it would lend you. On margin accounts this is typically a multiple of your equity.
• Margin used is backward-looking: what you have already borrowed. It accrues your broker's margin interest until sells or deposits pay it down. $0 means your positions are fully covered by your own cash.

Where you see them:

On the Dashboard, the balance tile's small chips switch between Total, Cash, BP, and (on margin accounts) Margin. The Portfolio page's Account row shows the same Margin Used figure. Cash accounts never see the margin views because there is nothing to show.

How margin interacts with auto-trading:

Jorg AI authorizes every buy against your buying power as the broker reports it, so a margin account can trade even with $0 cash. Position SIZING, however, computes from your chosen Position Sizing Basis (Settings > Trading): Cash by default, or Buying power / Equity if you select them. Margin-heavy accounts generally want the Buying power basis - see the Smart position sizing article for the full setting.

What Jorg AI does not do:

It does not factor your broker's margin interest into trade decisions, and it has no setting that borrows deliberately - margin is used only when your broker's buying power math extends it. Your Daily Spend Limit and position-size caps always apply, whichever basis you choose.