Exiting one leg of a hedged position can lead to a margin shortfall, even if you meet margin requirements by the end of the trading day. This can happen either when you voluntarily close one leg of the hedge or when one leg expires. 

Here's how and why this occurs:

Snapshot Mechanism: The Clearing Corporation (CC) captures 8 random snapshots for the commodity segment and 4 random snapshots for other segments during the trading day. These snapshots record intraday positions and margin requirements at specific points in time.

Margin Penalty: If the required margin is insufficient during any snapshot, a margin penalty is applied as below 

• 0.5% of the shortfall if the amount is below ₹1 lakh.
• 1% for shortfalls exceeding ₹1 lakh.
• Up to 5% for more than three shortfalls in a month.

Example: Here’s an example scenario explained in a tabular format to illustrate how exiting one leg of a hedged position (voluntarily or due to contract expiry) can lead to a margin shortfall: