You can pledge the securities in the demat account to trade F&O. When you do so, the funds that you can withdraw from your account will be calculated after making the adjustments across the cash in your account and the collateral margin that is blocked for your F&O positions.

At least 50% of the margins blocked for F&O positions have to come in the form of cash or cash equivalent collateral. The other 50% of the margin requirement can come in the form of other non-cash equivalent collateral margins.

Example scenario

Assume you initiate an F&O position that requires a margin of ₹1,00,000. Before initiating the F&O position, you have:

1. Cash: ₹70,000
2. Collateral Margin: ₹ 80,000 from securities pledged and after applying the required haircut
3. Cash Equivalent: ₹20,000 from pledged liquidbees.

Here is how ₹ 1,00,000/- for the F&O margin will be accounted for:

This leaves you with a withdrawable balance of ₹40,000.

The formula used to calculate the withdrawable balance is -

Withdrawable balance = (Available cash balance - Proceeds from stocks sold yesterday & today - F&O profits today - Funds added today)

Available cash balance = Closing balance as per the Funds Statement - Unsettled credits - Funds added today + Collateral utilised

Unsettled credits = Today’s and yesterday’s credits in the equity segment + Today’s credits in the derivative segment

Collateral utilised = Total collateral used towards margin requirement from the cash and non-cash equivalents

If you do not have enough collateral margins to cover 50% of the margin blocked, the difference is also charged from the available cash balance, which in turn will reduce your withdrawable balance further.

Did you know?

• Collateral margin received from pledging stocks or liquid mutual funds to trade F&O will not be considered part of the withdrawable balance.
• Funds added during the day are available for trading immediately. However, since we need to perform a balance reconciliation at the end of the day, you can withdraw these funds only after one day.
• Securities forming part of the cash and non-cash components can be tracked on the approved list of securities at Zerodha by visiting zerodha.com/approved-securities.