F&O margin calculator: SPAN + exposure for NSE futures & options
Add Nifty, Bank Nifty or stock F&O positions — futures, or options with a valid strike — and see the SPAN, exposure and total margin, and how much a hedge saves.
// Margin required
Add one or more positions. Add a hedge — for example, buy a further call against a sold call — to see how much margin the combination saves.
An estimate for planning, worked out the way the exchange's margin system does it. Your broker may ask for more, and margins change during the day. This is not investment advice.
How the margin is worked out
- SPAN margin — the worst one-day loss your positions in an index or stock could have across a range of price and volatility moves, worked out for all of them together.
- Exposure margin — an extra percentage of the contract value on futures and sold options.
- Margin benefit — positions that offset each other need less margin together than one by one; the difference is shown as the benefit.
- Bought options need the full premium instead of margin, shown separately.
Need the lot size first? See F&O lot sizes or the F&O expiry calendar.
F&O margin: common questions
SPAN margin is the main part of the margin for futures and options. The exchange's risk system looks at how much your whole set of positions in one index or stock could lose in a range of price and volatility moves over a day, and blocks the worst of those amounts. Because it looks at all your positions together, positions that offset each other need less.
Exposure (or extreme-loss) margin is a cushion charged on top of SPAN for futures and sold options. It is a percentage of the contract's value — 2% for index derivatives and usually 3.5% for stock derivatives, with higher rates for some stocks, for far out-of-the-money sold options and for long-dated index options. Bought options have no exposure margin.
When positions offset each other — for example a sold call with a bought call further away, or a future with an opposite future of another month — the combined risk is smaller, so the combined margin is lower than adding up each position's margin on its own. The difference is the margin benefit this calculator shows.
No. Buying an option needs the full premium instead of margin, so a bought option on its own shows zero margin here and its premium is shown separately. Adding a bought option to sold options or futures can lower their margin, which the calculator includes.
Margins change during the day as prices and volatility move, and many brokers add their own extra margin on top of the exchange's minimum. Close to expiry, stock derivatives that end in physical delivery can also need extra delivery margin. Treat this calculator as a planning estimate and check the final figure in your broker's order window.
You enter lots, and the calculator multiplies by the contract's lot size for that expiry. See the current lot size of every index and stock on our F&O lot sizes page.
Automatically, several times a day — the rates shown are the latest available, with the time printed under the calculator. In the evening it switches to the next trading day's opening rates.
Please note
This calculator gives an estimate of the minimum margin, worked out the way the exchange's margin system does it from the latest published rates. Your broker may charge more, margins change during the day, and delivery margins for stock derivatives near expiry are not included. It is for information only and is not investment advice — MyAlgoMate provides trading technology, not recommendations.