Broker reconciliation

Broker reconciliation is the process of making sure your trading system’s idea of the world, your positions, open orders, and cash, matches what your broker actually reports. The two can drift apart: a fill the broker processed before your system saw it, an order rejected while your code still thinks it’s working, or a position changed outside your system.

In live trading, the broker is the source of truth. Your software keeps a model of the account, but that model is a hypothesis the broker can overrule. Reconciliation is how you catch and resolve disagreements before they cause bad decisions. Surfacing broker-reported orders, fills, and positions makes those disagreements visible, though keeping your account’s books reconciled ultimately remains your responsibility.