# Settlement and Profit Realization On SYMMIO there’s a distinction between unrealized PnL (what a position is worth on paper) and allocated balance (real funds you can use to pay losses or withdraw). Settlement is the mechanism that lets you turn some of that unrealized profit into real, spendable balance so the system can keep functioning smoothly. A classic situation looks like this: a trader has several winning positions with you, plus one losing position they want to close. On paper they’re in profit overall, but their allocated balance is too low to pay for the loss on the closing trade. If you try to close it directly, the protocol blocks the operation because Party A doesn’t have enough realized collateral. From your point of view, you know they’re good for it—their winners cover the loss—but the contract only sees that their allocated balance is short. That’s where you, as Party B, would invoke a [settlement](/trader-documentation/how-trading-works-in-symmio/settlement.md). From a risk point of view, settlement is one of your main tools to avoid “good” traders getting stuck. If you never settle, you’ll eventually run into cases where a profitable account can’t close a losing leg because their realized balance is too low. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.symm.io/liquidity-provider-documentation/core-concepts/settlement-and-profit-realization.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.