# APIError: account is restricted to liquidation only

**URL:** <https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/apierror-account-is-restricted-to-liquidation-only/9940>\
**Category:** Alpaca Trading\
**Created:** [July 8, 2022, 3:13pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/apierror-account-is-restricted-to-liquidation-only/9940 "2022-07-08T15:13:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TEKNECI](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/tekneci/32/1449_2.png) [@TEKNECI](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/TEKNECI)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2022, 3:13pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/apierror-account-is-restricted-to-liquidation-only/9940/1 "2022-07-08T15:13:16Z")

</div>

I receive this error when I try to buy 2 stocks total for ~$5 and I have $20 equity on my real/live account.

“raise APIError(error, http\_error)  
alpaca\_trade\_api.rest.APIError: account is restricted to liquidation only”

so, is it not allowed to trade if you have such low balance? even though when buying less than the equity?  
is there a minimum you need to keep on live account trade?  
can someone please help to clarify?

many thanks.