What is the difference between ledger balance and available balance?

Ledger balance is the running total of all credits and debits recorded in your trading account, essentially a full accounting history including funds tied up in unsettled trades, margins, or pending settlements. Available balance is a narrower, real-time figure showing what you can actually use right now to place new orders, after the ledger balance is adjusted for blocked margin, pending settlement amounts, and other holds. These two numbers can diverge meaningfully; for instance, if you sold shares today, your ledger might already reflect the sale proceeds, but your available balance for withdrawal might not include that amount until T+1 settlement completes. You check available balance before placing a trade or requesting a withdrawal, since that’s the number that actually determines what you can do right now, and you check the ledger when you want the full historical picture of how your account got to its current state.