diff --git a/piker/brokers/ib.py b/piker/brokers/ib.py
index d40857a5..a9d04156 100644
--- a/piker/brokers/ib.py
+++ b/piker/brokers/ib.py
@@ -1465,7 +1465,7 @@ async def trades_dialogue(
     global _client_cache
 
     # deliver positions to subscriber before anything else
-    all_positions = {}
+    all_positions = []
 
     clients: list[tuple[Client, trio.MemoryReceiveChannel]] = []
     for account, client in _accounts2clients.items():
@@ -1480,9 +1480,7 @@ async def trades_dialogue(
         for client in _client_cache.values():
             for pos in client.positions():
                 msg = pack_position(pos)
-                all_positions.setdefault(
-                    msg.symbol, []
-                ).append(msg.dict())
+                all_positions.append(msg.dict())
 
     await ctx.started(all_positions)
 
diff --git a/piker/clearing/_ems.py b/piker/clearing/_ems.py
index 3c689ff4..3df1cd00 100644
--- a/piker/clearing/_ems.py
+++ b/piker/clearing/_ems.py
@@ -429,10 +429,13 @@ async def open_brokerd_trades_dialogue(
                 # by receiving order submission response messages,
                 # normalizing them to EMS messages and relaying back to
                 # the piker order client set.
+                pps = {}
+                for msg in positions:
+                    pps.setdefault(msg['symbol'], {})['account'] = msg
 
                 relay = TradesRelay(
                     brokerd_dialogue=brokerd_trades_stream,
-                    positions=positions,
+                    positions=pps,
                     consumers=1
                 )