You can control how M1 Finance manages your cash balance in your portfolios. All deposits and dividends paid to your M1 account will add to your cash balance. Withdrawals made to your bank account will take from your cash balance first.

Cash Balance Control can be located within Funding on M1's website and mobile apps.

Web:

Mobile:

Auto-invest all of my cash

This is the default option and most frequently used by M1 account holders. Any time your cash balance exceeds $10, M1 will automatically invest your cash balance into your portfolio.

Auto-invest my cash over a set amount

This option allows you to adjust the threshold at which M1 will invest your cash. If your cash balance exceeds this set amount by $10, M1 will automatically invest only the excess cash.

Example 1: You set your auto-investment threshold to $500 and deposit $1,000 cash. $500 will be held as cash, and the remaining $500 will be invested in your portfolio.

Example 2: You set your auto-investment threshold to $300 and deposit $100. $100 will be kept as cash.

Don't auto-invest my cash

With this option, M1 will never automatically invest cash into your portfolio. Deposits from your bank and paid dividends will accrue as cash in your account. 

With auto-investing turned off, you can use the cash in your account to make buy orders for specific Pie slices or individual securities.