What does Rollover mean, and what are the associated fees?

Rollover is the process of switching from a front-month contract that is about to expire to another contract in a later month, i.e., carrying forward your futures positions. This entails closing your position in the contract that is about to expire and opening a similar new position in a contract that is further out in time.

Any futures or options you purchase will have an expiry date (last day until which you can trade that contract). So, for example, you can only trade the Nifty future/Option until the expiry on 23 Feb 2023 (If the Expiry date is 23 Feb 2023). Afterwards the contract will expire.

What if you want to hold a nifty futures contract until March?

In this case, you must exit the Nifty February futures contract and open a new position in the March futures contract, which will be valid until March 30th, 2023. Rolling over refers to the process of moving your position from one month to the next. This rolling over can be done at any time before the market closes on Feb 23rd, 2023.

For example: If you purchased a Nifty February future at 16050 and the Nifty future is 16000 on February 20th, you may decide to roll over your position to March in order to continue your nifty future buy position. So, basically, you will sell the Nifty February futures contract and buy the Nifty March futures contract, which you can now hold until March 30th.

Note: When you sell the February futures, you must pay brokerage and charges, and when you buy back the March futures, you must pay brokerage and charges once more. Charges are comparable to those associated with a typical buy and sell transaction.

Rollover of contracts during the ban period is not permitted, according to this SEBI circular and exchange clarifications. If you have a position in a contract that is banned, you can only exit the existing position.