Margin required on the Kite order window
The Margin required field on the Kite order ticket is a pre-trade preview of how much margin the order will consume from your account. It is calculated live as you adjust quantity, price, and product type, so you know the cost of the trade before submitting.
What gets displayed
For F&O / CDS / MCX trades, the field shows:
- SPAN margin + Exposure margin = Total initial margin requirement.
For equity trades:
- MIS (intraday): Margin = product of price, quantity and the intraday leverage multiplier for the scrip.
- CNC (delivery): Margin = full price x quantity (no leverage; full settlement value).
The field is shown alongside available funds, making it easy to confirm sufficiency.
How SPAN and exposure are calculated
SPAN margin (Standard Portfolio Analysis of Risk) is the worst-case loss across a portfolio of contracts under stress scenarios. The exchange’s SPAN engine runs the calculation; the broker relays the requirement.
Exposure margin is an additional buffer on top of SPAN, set by the exchange.
For a single short call option:
- SPAN: covers worst-case price spike scenarios.
- Exposure: typically 3-5% of notional.
- Total: usually 10-15% of notional for index options.
For a long option:
- Margin required = premium paid (i.e., the cost of the option). No SPAN above this since loss is capped.
Margin sources
The displayed margin can be funded from:
| Source | What it counts as |
|---|---|
| Cash in trading account | 100% usable |
| Pledged equity (with haircut ) | Reduced by haircut % |
| Pledged liquid funds | Reduced by smaller haircut |
| Cash collateral (cash equivalent component) | Required: SEBI mandates a minimum cash component for F&O |
SEBI requires at least 50% of the F&O margin to be in cash or cash-equivalent (not pledged equity). The remaining can be from pledged equity collateral.
Cash vs collateral split
If you trade F&O frequently:
- Pledged equity covers the bulk of margin.
- Cash covers the minimum cash component.
The Margin required field on the order window does not split this for you; check Funds for the breakdown of how your margin is composed.
Margin shortfall penalty
If your margin used exceeds your margin available (because of MTM losses, pledge release, or new positions), you incur a margin shortfall penalty for the affected day. The penalty is per SEBI’s framework: ~0.5% to 1% of the shortfall per day. See Margin shortfall and auto-square-off .
The Margin required field on the order window helps avoid creating a shortfall; if the field shows more than your available margin, the order will be rejected.
Leverage product types
Kite supports MIS, CNC, NRML and BO / CO for various segments. The Margin required field updates as you change the product type:
| Product | Equity margin | F&O margin |
|---|---|---|
| MIS | Reduced (intraday leverage) | Same as NRML, but unwound at end of day |
| CNC | Full settlement value | Not applicable |
| NRML | Not applicable | SPAN + Exposure, full overnight margin |
| BO | Bracket-specific margin | Specific calculation |
| CO | Reduced (built-in stop limits risk) | Specific calculation |
Order rejection on margin shortfall
If you submit an order with insufficient margin, NSE / BSE / MCX or the broker rejects it. The rejection reason is typically “RMS rejection: margin not available”. This is a soft check; the order does not partially execute.
Margin previews vs final margin
The pre-trade Margin required field is the estimated margin. The actual margin applied on execution can be very slightly different due to:
- Price moves between order placement and execution.
- Updated SPAN values mid-day (the exchange updates SPAN files several times during the session).
- Multi-leg combinations: a single new contract can change the entire portfolio’s SPAN.
For most retail orders the difference is small. For large multi-leg orders, manually allow a small buffer.
See also
- SPAN and exposure margin on Kite
- Margin available / used / cash on Kite funds
- Pay-in funds explained
- Collateral (equity) on Kite
- Collateral (liquid funds) on Kite
- Margin shortfall and auto-square-off
- Margin pledge (Zerodha)
- Margin haircut
- Option premium credit on Kite funds
- Dashboard / funds calculation flow on Kite
- Margin on exit calculation
- Delivery margin field on Kite
- Intraday leverage multiplier (India)
- Kite Positions tab explained
- Kite Holdings tab explained
- How to add F&O contracts to the marketwatch
- How to add Nifty / BankNifty options to the marketwatch
- How to add MCX F&O to the marketwatch
- Futures and options
- MIS product type
- NRML product type
- CNC product type
- Bracket order (Zerodha)
- Cover order (Zerodha)
- P symbol on holdings page
- Kite (Zerodha)
- Kite web
- Kite mobile app
- Zerodha
- Zerodha Console
External references
- Zerodha margin calculator
- NSE F&O, SPAN margin file
- SEBI, F&O margin framework
- Zerodha Kite Support, margin
References
- SEBI, Margin framework for equity derivatives, sebi.gov.in.
- NSE Clearing, SPAN margin methodology, nseclearing.com.
- Zerodha Support, Margin required on the order window, support.zerodha.com.
- Zerodha margin calculator, Contract-level margin computation, zerodha.com.