# Basket trading for stakers (/docs/guides/basket-trading-for-stakers)

If you stake TAO on root (netuid 0), your validator runs a **basket**: a fund
of subnet alpha built from its root dividends, in which you hold **beta**, a
share of the whole fund ([Root Reborn](/docs/guides/root-reborn)). Runtime
v461 lets the validator actively trade that basket with
[`swap-basket`](/docs/tx/swap-basket). This page is what that means for you.
The operator's side is [Basket trading](/docs/guides/basket-trading); the
governance side is [Basket trading for governance](/docs/guides/basket-trading-governance).

## Nothing to do [#nothing-to-do]

A trade changes **what the fund holds**, not what you own. Your beta count,
your entitlement (your fraction of the fund), your root stake, your dividend
accrual, and the claim path are exactly as before. There is no opt-in, no
migration, and no new command you need to run.

What does change over time is the fund's NAV — its realizable TAO value —
and therefore what your beta is worth when you claim. Before v461 the NAV
moved only with subnet prices — dividends landed where they were earned and
nothing else changed the mix; now it also moves with the validator's trades.
Good trading raises it; bad trading lowers it. That is the same bet you
already make when you pick a validator.

Trading launches **off** network-wide. Until governance enables it, no fund
can trade.

## See what your validator holds and trades [#see-what-your-validator-holds-and-trades]

```bash
btcli root list                                  # every fund: NAV, price vs the index
btcli root list 5F...validator                   # one fund: holdings, NAV, your position
btcli root list --mine                           # your positions: staked and accrued τ per validator
btcli query validator-basket --hotkey 5F...validator          # holdings: (netuid, alpha, TAO value)
btcli query validator-basket-summary --hotkey 5F...validator  # NAV, shares, holdings, lifetime return
btcli query basket-trading-status --hotkey 5F...validator     # is the fund trading, and how much budget is left
```

`validator-basket` is the fund's composition right now. Netuid 0 in that
list is the fund's TAO cash slot. Two reads a day apart show you whether the
validator is trading and where it is moving.

Every trade emits a `BasketSwapped` event with the validator `hotkey`,
`origin_netuid`, `destination_netuid`, `alpha_sold`, `tao_mid` (the TAO that
passed through the middle), and `alpha_bought`. Explorers list them per
block; in the SDK, read a block's events and filter:

```python
import bittensor as bt

async with bt.Subtensor("finney") as client:
    events = await client.query(bt.storage.System.Events, block=BLOCK)
    trades = [e for e in events if e["event"]["module_id"] == "SubtensorModule"
              and e["event"]["event_id"] == "BasketSwapped"]

    holdings = await client.read("validator_basket", hotkey_ss58=HOTKEY)
    position = await client.read("basket_position", hotkey_ss58=HOTKEY, coldkey_ss58=MY_COLDKEY)
    portfolio = await client.read("root_basket_portfolio", coldkey_ss58=MY_COLDKEY)
```

[`basket-position`](/docs/query/basket-position) is your beta and its value
on one validator; [`root-basket-portfolio`](/docs/query/root-basket-portfolio)
is the same across every validator you stake on;
[`root-basket-owed`](/docs/query/root-basket-owed) is the TAO a claim would
pay you right now.

## What the guardrails protect [#what-the-guardrails-protect]

The validator cannot trade freely. Every trade must pass these checks, and a
trade that fails any of them does nothing at all:

* **Each leg fills within 2% of the subnet's moving prices and spot.** Two
  moving averages anchor the band — a slow one (about a month) and a fast
  one (about two hours, written each block from the previous block's
  close) — so the fund cannot be sold into a crash or bought into a spike,
  a price someone just pumped or dumped cannot be traded at, and one trade
  cannot move a pool's price by more than about 2%.
* **A turnover budget of 10% of NAV.** The fund holds a bucket of that size;
  each trade drains it by the TAO it moves, and it refills over one day. At
  most one budget can be spent at any instant, and about one per day.
* **No position above 1/16 of NAV.** A buy may not leave any holding above
  that share of the fund; the cash slot counts too.
* **No position above 10% of a pool's alpha.** Stops the fund from being
  used to pump a thin subnet and left holding alpha it cannot sell for
  what it paid.
* **Only a dedicated key can trade.** The validator's coldkey, or a proxy of
  exactly the `BasketTrading` type, which can call `swap_basket` and nothing
  else. A stolen trader key cannot touch your stake, your claims, or the
  validator's other keys.
* **Governance can freeze a fund** or switch trading off network-wide at
  any time. A frozen fund still accrues dividends and pays claims.

Together these bound what a stolen trader key working with a counterparty
could extract at about 1.3% of the fund's NAV per day until it is frozen —
and honest trading costs only the pool fees on the legs it runs.

## If you dislike a validator's trading [#if-you-dislike-a-validators-trading]

You are never locked in. Your root stake and your accrued beta are yours to
move, on your schedule:

```bash
btcli root claim --hotkey 5F...old                # realize accrued β into root stake on that validator
btcli root move --from 5F...old --to 5F...new     # claim there, then move all root stake to another validator
btcli stake remove --netuid 0 --hotkey 5F...old --amount all --claim   # claim, then unstake to free balance
```

`btcli root move` claims any accrued yield on the source (it folds into
root stake there) and moves the whole position — principal plus that yield
— onto the destination; the value never passes through your free balance.
Future dividends accrue in the destination's basket. Compare funds first
with `btcli root list`: price versus the index and lifetime return are the
same numbers every explorer shows.

## Reference [#reference]

* Guides: [Basket trading](/docs/guides/basket-trading),
  [Basket trading for governance](/docs/guides/basket-trading-governance),
  [Root Reborn](/docs/guides/root-reborn), [Staking](/docs/guides/staking)
* Reads: [`validator-basket`](/docs/query/validator-basket),
  [`validator-basket-summary`](/docs/query/validator-basket-summary),
  [`basket-trading-status`](/docs/query/basket-trading-status),
  [`basket-position`](/docs/query/basket-position),
  [`root-basket-portfolio`](/docs/query/root-basket-portfolio),
  [`root-basket-owed`](/docs/query/root-basket-owed)
* Release: [v461 — Basket Trading](/releases/v461-upgrade)