What is the Auto exchange selection feature on Kite, and how does it work?

The Auto exchange selection feature routes your equity orders to the exchange offering the best Volume-Weighted Average Price (VWAP) at the time of placement, rather than requiring you to manually choose between exchanges.

Currently, the Auto option is available only on Kite web and Kite Connect API for regular market Cash and Carry (CNC) sell orders with market protection enabled. It is not supported on the Kite app.

How the Auto option works

When you select Auto, Kite checks the top five bid levels across NSE and BSE and calculates the projected VWAP for your quantity on each exchange:

• Kite calculates the VWAP only up to the depth levels required to fill your order quantity, not across the entire market depth.
• Kite routes the full order to the exchange, offering the higher VWAP. Kite sends the entire order to a single exchange without splitting it.
• If both exchanges offer the same VWAP, Kite routes the order to the exchange with the larger quantity available at that price level.

Because your order quantity determines which depth levels are evaluated, the same stock can route to NSE for a smaller order and BSE for a larger one.

How to place an order using the Auto option on Kite web

You can place an order using the Auto option on Kite web with these steps:

1. Click on Holdings.
2. Hover over the stock and click on Exit.
3. Select Auto in the exchange options alongside BSE and NSE. The order window automatically sets the order type to Market with Market protection enabled.
4. Enter the quantity you want to sell.
5. Click on Sell.

API users must set the exchange parameter to "*" instead of BSE or NSE, while leaving all other parameters unchanged.

When Kite rejects your order

Kite rejects the order and prompts you to select NSE or BSE manually if:

• You place the order outside regular market hours (9:15 AM to 3:30 PM), including pre-open, post-closing sessions, or as an After Market Order (AMO).
  
• The stock is not listed on both NSE and BSE, or has different trading symbols on each exchange.
• Either exchange has not recorded a trade in the last 60 seconds.
• The order is a Buy order, a non-market order (Limit, SL, or SL-M), or has market protection disabled.
• You attempt to modify an existing open order to Auto.
• If either one of the exchanges can't fill the full quantity of the order from their top 5 market depth, the order is rejected. In this case, you need to place the order again by selecting the exchange manually.
• The order is blocked if the projected VWAP deviates by more than 1% from the LTP of the exchange with the best VWAP.

Examples scenario

Example 1: Full quantity average price versus best top price

You place an order to sell 1,000 stocks:

BSE offers a higher top price (₹100.00), but only for 200 stocks. The remaining 800 stocks fill at ₹99.50, resulting in a VWAP of ₹99.60. NSE fills all 1,000 stocks at ₹99.90. Kite routes the order to NSE because it gives the higher average price for your full quantity.

Example 2: Tiebreaker on identical VWAP

You place an order to sell 300 stocks:

Both exchanges offer the same VWAP of ₹100.00. Kite routes the order to BSE because it has more quantity available at that price level (1,000 stocks compared to 400 stocks on NSE).

Things to keep in mind

• Kite determines exchange routing from a snapshot of market depth at the exact moment of order placement. Because market depth updates dynamically, your execution price can differ slightly from the projected VWAP. Market protection applies as usual to safeguard against wide price variations.
• Once routed, the order appears in your order book under the selected exchange. Any subsequent modification or cancellation applies only to that exchange.