Selling by hand while you follow a Portfolio: what Autopilot does next, and the two buttons to use instead

I'm Chris, co-founder of Autopilot. The single most common way people confuse their own account is this: they follow a Portfolio, then they go into their brokerage app and sell some of the shares by hand. A few days later the shares are back, the cash line in the app looks strange, and they write to us asking what happened. Here's what happened, why the system does it, and the two buttons that do what you actually wanted.

One thing first, because we're an SEC-registered investment adviser and I have to say it. Autopilot is the app. The actual investment advice comes from Autopilot Advisers, LLC. If you want the full legal version of anything in here, it's on our disclaimer page.

1) Why the shares come back

The system is built to invest what you told it to. You give Autopilot Advisers limited authority to send orders to that account; when the Portfolio changes, we send them and your broker fills them. When you allocate an amount to a Portfolio, that amount is the instruction. If you then sell part of the positions at your brokerage, we still see an allocation that's supposed to be invested in the Portfolio's weights, and on the next rebalance we may buy the sold positions back to get there. From the system's point of view, you didn't reduce your allocation; you created a gap between the allocation and the holdings, and closing gaps is its job.

A hand sale also throws off the numbers you see. The app tracks the positions it manages; a sale it didn't make shows up as a discrepancy, often as a larger cash line in the app than exists at the brokerage, and manual sales don't flow into the app's history and performance figures. When we detect one, a rebalance follows within one to three business days to realign your account with the targets, using the shares that are still there.

2) Button one: withdraw

If you want less money in a Portfolio, reduce the allocation or use the withdraw function in the app. That tells the system your instruction changed, and it sells proportionally across the Portfolio to release the amount you asked for, so the remaining positions still match the weights. Because your holdings are stocks and prices move, the amount that lands won't be exact to the penny. If you want out of a Portfolio entirely, deleting it sells all of its holdings and returns the cash to your brokerage, usually the same day depending on when you start it and on your brokerage's timing. Only do that if you mean to sell everything; if you want to keep the positions and just stop following, ask support for help rather than deleting.

3) Button two: blacklist

If the issue is one stock you don't want to own, don't sell it by hand and hope. Blacklist it. We then exclude it from future buys and spread your allocation across the other positions, and it won't come back. If you've already sold it by hand, blacklisting it afterward is the fix for the buy-back problem: we won't repurchase it, and the next rebalance uses the available funds across the rest.

4) Buying by hand

The reverse case is quieter but still matters. Stocks you buy on your own, in the same account, aren't part of the allocation and aren't counted in the app's tracking or in the Portfolio's targets. We won't sell them; we also won't manage them. If you want more of your money following the Portfolio, raise the allocation in the app and make sure the buying power exists at the broker, rather than buying the Pilot's stocks yourself. And don't add sale proceeds back into the allocation by hand; the system redeploys funds on its own according to the targets.

5) Two accounts, if you trade by hand at all

If you like trading on your own, the cleanest setup is two brokerage accounts: one you trade yourself, one that only follows Portfolios. Nothing overlaps, nothing gets rebought, and your brokerage's tax-lot accounting never has to decide which shares of a ticker were "yours" versus the allocation's. If you keep everything in one account, at least know your brokerage's accounting method, often first-in, first-out, because it governs which shares are treated as sold when any sell order for a stock you hold both ways goes through.

6) If you need cash immediately

If we aren't processing trades and you need liquidity immediately, you can sell shares through your brokerage; that doesn't conflict with anything except the displayed balances, which will look off until the rebalance realigns them within a few business days. Then, once you have the cash, reduce the allocation so the system's instruction matches what you did. Where the money sits through all of this, and why the two balances differ, is in Where your money actually is when you use Autopilot: allocation, custody, and why the app's balance won't match your brokerage balance.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if I sell Autopilot positions from my brokerage account?

Autopilot still sees your original allocation as the instruction, so on the next rebalance, within one to three business days, it may buy the sold positions back to restore the Portfolio's weights. The sale also creates a discrepancy in the app, often a cash line larger than the cash at your brokerage, and it isn't reflected in the app's history. To reduce your exposure, lower the allocation or use the withdraw function instead.

Why did Autopilot buy back a stock I sold?

Because selling by hand doesn't change your allocation, and the system is built to keep the allocation invested in the Portfolio's weights. To stop a specific stock from being rebought, blacklist it in the app; Autopilot then excludes it from future buys and spreads your allocation across the other positions. To hold less overall, lower the allocation or withdraw.

How do I take money out of a Portfolio without breaking it?

Use the withdraw function or reduce the allocation in the app. Autopilot sells proportionally across the Portfolio to release the amount, so the rest still matches the weights; the amount won't be exact to the penny because prices move. Deleting a Portfolio sells everything in it and returns the cash to your brokerage, usually the same day, so use that only if you mean to sell all of it.

Should I use a separate brokerage account for Autopilot?

If you also trade by hand, yes. A dedicated account for following Portfolios and a separate one for your own trades means nothing overlaps, nothing gets rebought, and your brokerage's tax-lot accounting never has to pick between your shares and the allocation's. If you keep one account, know its accounting method, often first-in, first-out, and use withdraw and blacklist rather than selling by hand.

TLDR

Selling by hand doesn't change your allocation, so the system may buy the shares back within a few days and the app's cash line goes strange. Use the two buttons built for what you want: withdraw to hold less, blacklist to never own a specific stock. Don't buy the Pilot's stocks yourself; raise the allocation instead. And if you trade on your own at all, keep it in a separate account.

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Since Autopilot Advisers is an SEC-registered investment adviser, we have to put disclaimers on stuff like this. They're below, and the full version is on our disclaimer page.

Disclosures

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