Live Books vs Sim — Why isn't >1.0 Gross Exposure (e.g. 90/50) Allowed?

General
1

I’ve run into something odd moving from sim to live books and wanted to sanity check with the community.

In simulations, I can structure a 90/50 long/short portfolio (gross exposure = 1.4) without issues. But in a live book, it seems like I’m capped at a gross exposure of 1.0 — almost as if the system enforces fully netted capital rather than allowing leverage across long/short legs.

A few specific questions I’m trying to understand:

  • Is this an intentional constraint in live books, or am I missing a configuration step?

  • Does this depend on the broker integration or margin settings behind the scenes?

  • Has anyone successfully implemented a true 130/30 or 90/50 structure in a live P123 setup?

  • If not, what’s the closest practical workaround people are using?

Feels like there’s a structural mismatch between how sims and live capital are treated, which could have pretty big implications for translating research → deployment.

Would appreciate any insight — especially from anyone who’s already gone down this path or from the P123 team directly.

2

You are correct, you can’t replicate a simulated Book as a Live Book if it has leverage or a short ETF position. It has just not been implemented yet (as noted in a past P123 post). Within Manage I have a separate strategy where I manually adjust my hedges. I use a spreadsheet to monitor hedge amounts and leverage.

1 Like
3

thanks I've logged a feature request.