What is an auto square-off?

Auto square-off is when the broker automatically closes out an open intraday or F&O position, either because you haven’t closed it yourself before the segment’s cut-off time, or because a margin shortfall in your account triggers a forced exit. Each broker sets its own square-off time window, commonly somewhere between 3:15 and 3:25 PM for intraday equity, and it can differ for F&O positions. The execution price during auto square-off is whatever the market offers at that moment, which can be worse than what you’d have gotten by exiting earlier yourself, and many brokers charge a separate auto square-off fee on top of regular brokerage for this forced exit. You set a personal reminder well before the broker’s square-off window and close intraday positions manually whenever possible, since you’d rather control your exit price than let the system do it for you.