business plan

options for assignment

  • Search Search Please fill out this field.
  • Assets & Markets

What Is an Option Assignment?

options for assignment

Definition and Examples of Assignment

How does assignment work, what it means for individual investors.

Morsa Images / Getty Images

An option assignment represents the seller of an option’s obligation to fulfill the terms of the contract by either selling or purchasing the underlying security at the exercise price. Let’s explain what that means in more detail.

Key Takeaways

An assignment represents the seller of an option’s obligation to fulfill the terms of the contract by either selling or purchasing the underlying security at the exercise price. Let’s explain what that means in more detail.

When you sell an option to someone, you’re selling them the right to make you engage in a future transaction. For example, if you sell someone a put option , you’re promising to buy a stock at a set price any time between when the transaction happens and the expiration date of the option.

If the holder of the option doesn’t do anything with the option by the expiration date, the option expires. However, if they decide that they want to go through with the transaction, they will exercise the option. 

If the holder of an option chooses to exercise it, the seller will receive a notification, called an assignment, letting them know that the option holder is exercising their right to complete the transaction. The seller is legally obligated to fulfill the terms of the options contract.

For example, if you sell a call option on XYZ with a strike price of $40 and the buyer chooses to exercise the option, you’ll be assigned the obligation to fulfill that contract. You’ll have to buy 100 shares of XYZ at whatever the market price is, or take the shares from your own portfolio and sell them to the option holder for $40 each.

Options traders only have to worry about assignment if they sell options contracts. Those who buy options don’t have to worry about assignment because in this case, they have the power to exercise a contract, or choose not to.

The options market is huge, in that options are traded on large exchanges and you likely do not know who you’re buying contracts from or selling them to. It’s not like you sell an option to someone you know and they send you an email if they choose to exercise the contract, rather it is an organized process.

In the U.S., the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), which is considered the options industry clearinghouse, helps to facilitate the exchange of options contracts. It guarantees a fair process of option assignments, ensuring that the obligations in the contract are fulfilled.

When an investor chooses to exercise a contract, the OCC randomly assigns the obligation to someone who sold the option being exercised. For example, if 100 people sold XYZ calls with a strike of $40, and one of those options gets exercised, the OCC will randomly assign that obligation to one of the 100 sellers.

In general, assignments are uncommon. About 7% of options get exercised, with the remaining 93% expiring. Assignment also tends to grow more common as the expiration date nears.

If you are assigned the obligation to fulfill an options contract you sold, it means you have to accept the related loss and fulfill the contract. Usually, your broker will handle the transaction on your behalf automatically.

If you’re an individual investor, you only have to worry about assignment if you’re involved in selling options. Even then, assignments aren't incredibly common. Less than 7% of options get assigned and they tend to get assigned as the option’s expiration date gets closer.

Having an option assigned does mean that you are forced to lock in a loss on an option, which can hurt. However, if you’re truly worried about assignment, you can plan to close your position at some point before the expiration date or use options strategies that don’t involve selling options that could get exercised.

The Options Industry Council. " Options Assignment FAQ: How Can I Tell When I Will Be Assigned? " Accessed Oct. 18, 2021.

By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.

Home

For Industry Professionals

Registered representatives can fulfill Continuing Education requirements, view their industry CRD record and perform other compliance tasks.

For Member Firms

Firm compliance professionals can access filings and requests, run reports and submit support tickets.

For Case Participants

Arbitration and mediation case participants and FINRA neutrals can view case information and submit documents through this Dispute Resolution Portal.

Need Help? | Check Systems Status

Log In to other FINRA systems

Trading Options: Understanding Assignment

Financial chart on LCD display stock photo

The options market can seem to have a language of its own. To the average investor, there are likely a number of unfamiliar terms, but for an individual with a short options position—someone who has sold call or put options—there is perhaps no term more important than " assignment "—the fulfilling of the requirements of an options contract.

Options trading carries risk and requires specific approval from an investor's brokerage firm. For information about the inherent risks and characteristics of the options market, refer to the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options also known as the Options Disclosure Document (ODD).

When someone buys options to open a new position ("Buy to Open"), they are buying a right —either the right to buy the underlying security at a specified price (the strike price) in the case of a call option, or the right to sell the underlying security in the case of a put option.

On the flip side, when an individual sells, or writes, an option to open a new position ("Sell to Open"), they are accepting an obligation —either an obligation to sell the underlying security at the strike price in the case of a call option or the obligation to buy that security in the case of a put option. When an individual sells options to open a new position, they are said to be "short" those options. The seller does this in exchange for receiving the option's premium from the buyer.

Learn more about  options from FINRA or access free courses like Options 101 at OCC Learning .

American-style options allow the buyer of a contract to exercise at any time during the life of the contract, whereas European-style options can be exercised only during a specified period just prior to expiration. For an investor selling American-style options, one of the risks is that the investor may be called upon at any time during the contract's term to fulfill its obligations. That is, as long as a short options position remains open, the seller may be subject to "assignment" on any day equity markets are open. 

What is assignment?

An option assignment represents the seller's obligation to fulfill the terms of the contract by either selling or buying the underlying security at the exercise price. This obligation is triggered when the buyer of an option contract exercises their right to buy or sell the underlying security.

To ensure fairness in the distribution of American-style and European-style option assignments, the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), which is the options industry clearing house, has an established process to randomly assign exercise notices to firms with an account that has a short option position. Once a firm receives an assignment, it then assigns this notice to one of its customers who has a short option contract of the same series. This short option contract is selected from a pool of such customers, either at random or by some other procedure specific to the brokerage firm. 

How does an investor know if an option position will be assigned?

While an option seller will always have some level of uncertainty, being assigned may be a somewhat predictable event. Only about 7% of options positions are typically exercised, but that does not imply that investors can expect to be assigned on only 7% of their short positions. Investors may have some, all or none of their short positions assigned.

And while the majority of American-style options exercises (and assignments) happen on or near the contract's expiration, a long options holder can exercise their right at any time, even if the underlying security is halted for trading. Someone may exercise their options early based upon a significant price movement in the underlying security or if shares become difficult to borrow as the result of a pending corporate action such as a buyout or takeover. 

Note: European-style options can only be exercised during a specified period just prior to expiration. In U.S. markets, the majority of options on commodity and index futures are European-style, while options on stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETF) are American-style. So, while SPDR S&P 500, or SPY options, which are options tied to an ETF that tracks the S&P 500, are American-style options, S&P 500 Index options, or SPX options, which are tied to S&P 500 futures contracts, are European-style options.

What happens after an option is assigned?

An investor who is assigned on a short option position is required to meet the terms of the written option contract upon receiving notification of the assignment. In the case of a short equity call, the seller of the option must deliver stock at the strike price and in return receives cash. An investor who doesn't already own the shares will need to acquire and deliver shares in return for cash in the amount of the strike price, multiplied by 100, since each contract represents 100 shares. In the case of a short equity put, the seller of the option is required to purchase the stock at the strike price.

How might an investor's account balance fluctuate after opening a short options position?

It is normal to see an account balance fluctuate after opening a short option position. Investors who have questions or concerns or who do not understand reported trade balances and assets valuations should contact their brokerage firm immediately for an explanation. Please keep in mind that short option positions can incur substantial risk in certain situations.

For example, say XYZ stock is trading at $40 and an investor sells 10 contracts for XYZ July 50 calls at $1.00, collecting a premium of $1,000, since each contract represents 100 shares ($1.00 premium x 10 contracts x 100 shares). Consider what happens if XYZ stock increases to $60, the call is exercised by the option holder and the investor is assigned. Should the investor not own the stock, they must now acquire and deliver 1,000 shares of XYZ at a price of $50 per share. Given the current stock price of $60, the investor's short stock position would result in an unrealized loss of $9,000 (a $10,000 loss from delivering shares $10 below current stock price minus the $1,000 premium collected earlier).

Note: Even if the investor's short call position had not been assigned, the investor's account balance in this example would still be negatively affected—at least until the options expire if they are not exercised. The investor's account position would be updated to reflect the investor's unrealized loss—what they could lose if an option is exercised (and they are assigned) at the current market price. This update does not represent an actual loss (or gain) until the option is actually exercised and the investor is assigned. 

What happens if an investor opened a multi-leg strategy, but one leg is assigned?

American-style option holders have the right to exercise their options position prior to expiration regardless of whether the options are in-, at- or out-of-the-money. Investors can be assigned if any market participant holding calls or puts of the same series submits an exercise notice to their brokerage firm. When one leg is assigned, subsequent action may be required, which could include closing or adjusting the remaining position to avoid potential capital or margin implications resulting from the assignment. These actions may not be attractive and may result in a loss or a less-than-ideal gain.

If an investor's short option is assigned, the investor will be required to perform in accordance with their obligation to purchase or deliver the underlying security, regardless of the overall risk of their position when taking into account other options that may be owned as part of the overall multi-leg strategy. If the investor owns an option that serves to limit the risk of the overall spread position, it is up to the investor to exercise that option or to take other action to limit risk. 

Below are a couple of examples that underscore how important it is for every investor to understand the risks associated with potential assignment during market hours and potentially adverse price movements in afterhours trading.

Example #1: An investor is short March 50 XYZ puts and long March 55 XYZ puts. At the close of business on March expiration, XYZ is priced at $56 per share, and both puts are out of the money, which means they have no intrinsic value. However, due to an unexpected news announcement shortly after the closing bell, the price of XYZ drops to $40 in after-hours trading. This could result in an assignment of the short March 50 puts, requiring the investor to purchase shares of XYZ at $50 per share. The investor would have needed to exercise the long March 55 puts in order to realize the gain on the initial multi-leg position. If the investor did not exercise the March 55 puts, those puts may expire and the investor may be exposed to the loss on the XYZ purchase at $50, a $10 per share loss with XYZ now trading at $40 per share, without receiving the benefit of selling XYZ at $55.

Example #2: An investor is short March 50 XYZ puts and long April 50 XYZ puts. At the close of business on March expiration, XYZ is priced at $45 per share, and the investor is assigned XYZ stock at $50. The investor will now own shares of XYZ at $50, along with the April 50 XYZ puts, which may be exercised at the investor's discretion. If the investor chooses not to exercise the April 50 puts, they will be required to pay for the shares that were assigned to them on the short March 50 XYZ puts until the April 50 puts are exercised or shares are otherwise disposed of.

Note: In either example, the short put position may be assigned prior to expiration at the discretion of the option holder. Investors can check with their brokerage firm regarding their option exercise procedures and cut-off times.

For options-specific questions, you may contact OCC's Investor Education team at [email protected] , via chat on OptionsEducation.org or subscribe to the OIC newsletter . If you have questions about options trading in your brokerage account, we encourage you to contact your brokerage firm. If after doing so you have not resolved the issue or have additional concerns, you can contact FINRA .

Blue swoosh

FAQ: MMTLP Corporate Action and Trading Halt

Hand holding a smartphone with stock graph

Following the Crowd: Investing and Social Media

5 Ways Women Can Take Charge of Their Financial Futures

5 Ways Women Can Take Charge of Their Financial Futures

Recovering from Investment Fraud: Start with These 6 Steps

Recovering from Investment Fraud: Start with These 6 Steps

Alphabet Soup

3 Things to Know About Financial Designations

Trade Options With Me

Trade Options With Me

For Your Financial Freedom

What is Options Assignment & How to Avoid It

options assignment explained

If you are learning about options, assignment might seem like a scary topic. In this article, you will learn why it really isn’t. I will break down the entire options assignment process step by step and show you when you might be assigned, how to minimize the risk of being assigned, and what to do if you are assigned.

Video Breakdown of Options Assignment

Check out the following video in which I explain everything you need to know about assignment:

What is Assignment?

To understand assignment, we must first remember what options allow you to do. So let’s start with a brief recap:

In other words, call options allow you to call away shares of the underlying from someone else, whereas a put option allows you to put shares in someone else’s account. Hence the name call and put option.

The assignment process is the selection of the other party of this transaction. So the person that has to buy from or sell to the option buyer that exercised their option.

Note that an option buyer has the right to exercise their option. It is not an obligation and therefore, a buyer of an option can never be assigned. Only option sellers can ever be get assigned since they agree to fulfill this obligation when they sell an option.

Let’s go through a specific example to clarify this:

Over the next few weeks, ABC’s price goes down to $90 and Peter decides to exercise his put option. This means that he uses his right to sell 100 shares of ABC for $95 per share. Now Kate is assigned these 100 shares of ABC which means she is obligated to buy them for $95 per share. 

options exercise and assignment

Peter now has 100 fewer shares of ABC in his portfolio, whereas Kate has 100 more.

This process is analog for a call option with the only difference being that Kate would be short 100 shares and Peter would have 100 additional shares of ABC in his portfolio.

Hopefully, this example clarifies what assignment is.

Who Can Be Assigned?

To answer this question, we must first ask ourselves who exercises their option? To do this, let’s quickly look at the different ways that you can close a long option position:

So as an option seller, you only have to worry about the last two possibilities in which the buyer’s option is exercised. 

options assignment statistic

But before you worry too much, here is a quick fact about the distribution of these 3 alternatives:

Less than 10% of all options are exercised.

This means 90% of all options are either sold prior to the expiration date or expire worthless. So always remember this statistic before breaking your head over the risk of being assigned.

It is very easy to avoid the first case of being assigned. To avoid it, just close your short option positions before they expire (ITM). For the second case, however, things aren’t as straight forward.

Who Risks being Assigned Early?

Firstly, you have to be trading American-style options. European-style options can only be exercised on their expiration date. But most equity options are American-style anyway. So unless you are trading index options or other kinds of European-style options, this will be the case for you.

Secondly, you need to be an options seller. Option buyers can’t be assigned.

These two are necessary conditions for you to be assigned. Everyone who fulfills both of these conditions risks getting assigned early. The size of this risk, however, varies depending on your position. Here are a few things that can dramatically increase your assignment risk:

How can you Minimize Assignment Risk?

Since you now know what assignment is, and who risks being assigned, let’s shift our focus on how to minimize the assignment risk. Even though it isn’t possible to completely remove the risk of being assigned, there are things that you can do to dramatically decrease the chances of being assigned.

The first thing would be to avoid selling options on securities with upcoming dividend payments. Before putting on a position, simply check if the underlying security has any upcoming dividend payments. If so, look for a different trade.

If you ever are in the position that you are short an option and the ex-dividend of the underlying security is right around the corner, compare the size of the dividend to the extrinsic value of your option. If the extrinsic value is less than the dividend amount, you really should consider closing the position. Otherwise, the chances of being assigned are high. This is especially bad since being short during a dividend payment of a security will force you to pay the dividend.

Besides avoiding dividends, you should also close your option positions early. The less time an option has left, the lower its extrinsic value becomes and the more it makes sense for option buyers to exercise their options. Therefore, it is good practice to close your (ITM) short option positions at least one week before the expiration date.

The deeper an option is ITM, the higher the chances of assignment become. So the just-mentioned rule is even more important for deep ITM options.

If you don’t want to indefinitely close your position, it is also possible to roll it out to a later expiration cycle. This will give you more time and add extrinsic value to your position.

FAQs about Assignment

Last but not least, I want to answer some frequently asked questions about options exercise and assignment.

1. What happens if your account does not have enough buying power to cover the assigned position?

This is a common worry for beginning options traders. But don’t worry, if you don’t have enough capital to cover the new position, you will receive a margin call and usually, your broker will just automatically close the assigned shares immediately. This might lead to a minor assignment fee, but otherwise, it won’t significantly affect your account. Tatsyworks, for example, charges an assignment fee of only $5.

Check out my review of tastyworks

2. How does assignment affect your P&L?

When an option is exercised, the option holder gains the difference between the strike price and the price of the underlying asset. If the option is ITM, this is exactly the intrinsic value of the option. This means that the option holder loses the extrinsic value when he exercises his/her option. That’s also why it doesn’t make sense to exercise options with a lot of extrinsic value left.

options assignment extrinsic value

This means that as soon as the option is exercised, it is only the intrinsic value that is relevant for the payoff. This is the same payoff as the option at its expiration date.

So as an options seller, your P&L isn’t negatively affected by an assignment. Either it stays the same or it becomes slightly better due to the extrinsic value being ignored.

As an example, if your option is ITM by $1, you will lose up to $100 per option or $1 per share that you are assigned. But this does not account for the extrinsic value that falls away with the exercise of the option. So this would be the same P&L as at expiration. Depending on how much premium you collected when selling the option, this might still be a profit or a minor loss.

With that being said, as soon as you are assigned, you will have some carrying risk. If you don’t or can’t close the position immediately, you will be exposed to the ongoing price fluctuations of that security.  Sometimes, you might not be able to close the new position immediately because of trading halts, or because the market is closed.

If you weren’t planning on holding that security, it is a good idea to close the new position as soon as possible. 

Option spreads such as vertical spreads, add protection to these price fluctuations since you can just exercise the long option to close the assigned share position at the strike price of the long option.

3. When an option holder exercises their option, how is the assignment partner chosen?

random options assignment process

This is usually a random process. As soon as an option is exercised, the responsible brokerage firm sends a request to the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). They send back the requested shares, whereafter they randomly choose another brokerage firm that currently has a client that is short the exercised option. Then the chosen broker has to decide which of their clients is assigned. This choice is, once again, random or a time-based priority system is used.

4. How does assignment work for index options?

As there aren’t any shares of indexes, you can’t directly be assigned any shares of the underlying asset. Therefore, index options are cash-settled. This means that instead of having to buy or sell shares of the underlying, you simply have to pay the difference between the strike price and the underlying trading price. This makes assignment easier and a lot less likely among index options.

Note that ETF options such as SPY options are not cash-settled. SPY is a normal security with openly traded shares, so exercise and assignment work just like they do among equity options.

options assignment dont panic

I hope this article made you realize that assignment isn’t as bad as it might seem at first. It is just important to understand how the options assignment process works and what affects the likelihood of being assigned.

To recap, here’s what you should to do when you are assigned:

if you have enough capital in your account to cover the position, you could either treat the new position as a normal (stock) position and hold on to it or you could close it immediately. If you don’t have a clear trading plan for the new position, I recommend the latter.

If, on the other hand, you don’t have enough buying power, you will receive a margin call from your broker and the position should be closed automatically.

Assignment does not have any significant impact on your P&L, but it comes with some carrying risk. Options spreads can offer more protection against this than naked option positions.

To mitigate assignment risk, you should close option positions early, always keep an eye on the extrinsic value of your option positions, and avoid upcoming dividend securities.

And always remember, less than 10% of options are exercised, so assignment really doesn’t happen that often, especially not if you are actively trying to avoid it.

For the specifics of how assignment is handled, it is a good idea to contact your broker, as the procedures can vary from broker to broker.

Thank you for taking the time and reading this post. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please let me know in the comment section below.

22 Replies to “What is Options Assignment & How to Avoid It”

hi there well seems like finally there is one good honest place. seem like you are puting on the table the whole truth about bad positions. however my wuestion is when can one know where to put that line of limit. when do you recognise or understand that you are in a bad position? thanks and once again, a great site.

Well If you are trading a risk defined strategy the point would be at max loss and not too much time left until expiration. For undefined risk strategies however it can be very different. I would just say if you don’t have too much time until expiration and are far from making money you should use some common sense and admit that you are wrong.

What would happen in the event of a crash. Would brokers be assigning, options, cashing out these shares, and making others bankrupt. Well, I guessed I sort of answered my own question. Its not easy to understand, especially not knowing when this would come up. But seems like you hit the important aspects of the agreement.

Actually I wouldn’t imagine that too many people would want to exercise their options in case of a market ctash, because they probably wouldn’t want to hold stocks in this risky and volatile environment. 

And to the part of the questions: making others bankrupt. This really depends on the situation. You can’t get assigned more stock than your option covers. This means as long as you trade with reasonable position sizing nothing too bad can happen. Otherwise I would recommend to trade with defined risk strategies so your maximum drawdown is capped.

Thanks for writing about assignment Louis. After reading the section how assignment works, I feel I am somewhat unclear about how assignment works when the exerciser exercises Put or Call option. In both cases, if the underlying is an index, is the settlement done through the margin account money? Would you be able to provide a little more detail of how exercising the option (Put vs Call) would work in case of an underlying stock vs Index.

Thank you very much in advance

Thanks for the question. Indexes can’t be traded in the same way as stocks can. That’s why index options are settled in cash. If your index option is assigned, you won’t have to buy or sell any shares of the underlying index at the strike price because there exist no shares of indexes. Instead, you have to pay the amount that your index option is ITM to the exerciser of your option. Let me give you an example: You are short a call option with the strike price of 1000. The underlying asset is an index and it’s price is 1050. This means your call option is 50 points ITM. If someone exercises your long call option, you will have to pay him/her the difference between the strike price and the underlying’s price which would be 50 (1050-1000). So the main difference between index and stock options is that you don’t have to buy/sell any shares of the underlying asset for index options. I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions or comments.

Can the same logic be applied for ETFs as it does Indexes? For example, if I trade the SPY ETF, would it be settled in cash?

Thanks! Johnson

Hi Johnson, Exercise and assignment for ETFs such as SPY work just like they do for equities. ETFs have shares that are openly traded, whereas indexes don’t. That’s why indexes are settled in cash, whereas ETFs aren’t. I hope this helps.

There are many articles online that I read that are biased against options tradings and I am a bit surprised to read a really helpful article like this. I find this helpful in understanding options trading, what are the techniques and how to manage the risks. Before, I was hesitant to try this financial game but now, after reading this article, I am considering participating with live accounts and no longer with a demo account. A few months ago, I signed up with a company called IQ Options, but really never involved real money and practiced only with a demo account.

Thanks for your comment. I am glad to see that you liked the post. However, I don’t recommend sing IQ Option to trade since they are a very shady trading firm. You could check out my  Review of IQ Option for all the details.

this is a great and amazing article. i sincerely your effort creating time  to write on such an informative article which has taught me a lot more on what is options assignment and avoiding it. i just started trading but had no ideas on this as a beginner. i find this article very helpful because it has given me more understanding on options trading and knowing the techniques and how to manage the risks. thanks for sharing this amazing article

You are very welcome

Hello, the first thing that i noticed when i opened this page is the beauty of the website. i am sure you have put much effort into creating this article and the details are really clear here. after watching the video break down, i fully understood the entire process on how to avoid options assignment.

Thank you so much for the positive feedback!

I would love to create a website like yours as the design used is really nice, simple and brings about clarity of the write ups, but then you wrote a brilliant article on how to avoid options assignment. great video here. it was  confusing at first. i will suggest another video be added to help some people like me.

Thanks for the feedback. I recommend checking out my  options trading beginner course . In it, I cover all the basics that weren’t explained here.

Thanks for your very helpful article. I am contemplating selling a call that would cover half my shares on company X. How can ensure that the assignment process selects the shares that I bought at a higher price, so as to maximize capital losses?

Hi Luis, When you are assigned, you just automatically buy/sell shares of the underlying at the strike price. This means your overall portfolio is adjusted by these 100 shares. The exact shares and your entry price are irrelevant. If you have 50 shares of X and your short call is assigned, you will sell 100 shares of X at the strike price. After this, your position would be -50 shares of X which would be equivalent to being short 50 shares of X. I hope this helps.

Louis, I entered a CALL butterfly spread at $100 below where I intended, just 2 days before expiration date. I intended to speculate on a big earning announcement jump the next day. It was a debit of 1.25. Also, when I realized my mistake, I tried to close it for anything at all. The Mark fluctuated between 40 and 70, but I could not get it to close. So now I am assigned to sell 200 share at 70 dollars below the market price of the stock. I am having a heart attack. I do not have the 200 shares to deliver, so it seems I have to buy them at the market, and sell them for $70 less, for a loss of $14,000.

What other options are open to me? Can my trading firm force a close with a friendly market maker and make it as if it happened on Friday? I am willing to pay a friendly market maker several hundred dollars to make this trade. Is that an option? Other options the trading firm can do for me that would cost me less than $14,000?

Hi Paul, Thanks for your comment. From the limited information provided, it is hard to say what is actually going on. If you bought a call butterfly spread, your max loss should be limited to the premium you paid to open the position. An assignment shouldn’t have a huge impact on your overall P&L. I highly recommend contacting your broker and explaining your situation to them since they have all the information required to evaluate what’s actually going on. But if the loss is real, there is no way for you to make a deal with a market maker to limit or undo potential losses. I hope this helps.

What happens with ITM long call option that typically gets automatically exercised at expiration, if the owner of the call option doesn’t have the cash/margin to cover the stock purchase?

He would receive a margin call

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Receive Emails with Educational Content

Privacy Overview

Want to Become a Better Trader Today?

Top Searches

Trending symbols, trending articles, recently viewed symbols.

News & Insights

Schaeffer-Logo

Options Basics: How the Option Assignment Process Works

July 23, 2021 — 12:46 pm EDT

Written by [email protected] for Schaeffer  ->

There is a lot of technical jargon that is specific to the options market. For a beginner who is aiming to learn how to trade options, understanding these technical terms is crucial to optimizing trading results. One phrase that is a critical part of this options trading language is “assignment.” Simply defined, the assignment of an option refers to the fulfillment of the options contract by the seller. An option holder has the right to buy or sell the underlying equity at the given strike price. Once the holder decides to exercise the option, the option is said to be “assigned.” If a trader sells options, he must be aware of the assignment process and the risks it entails. We recommend subscribing to one of Schaeffer's options trading newsletters  to gain the ultimate insights into the language of the options market while making money, too.

What Does it Mean to Write an Option?

When an options seller writes an options contract, this is known as a “sell to open” trade, as he is essentially opening a new position. As the trader is selling the option to open this position, he is technically said to be “short” that underlying stock. The seller accepts a responsibility to sell or buy the underlying security in lieu of a premium received from the buyer. As a general rule, an option holder can exercise his rights any time before the contract expires. In order to learn to trade options, it is necessary to grasp this structure of corresponding rights and duties. It's important to also note that most options are exercised when they are nearing expiry because, after that, the options contract is worthless.

How Does the Option Assignment Process Work?

The assignment process is done at random by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) . A trader will become more acquainted with the operations of the OCC as he or she learns to trade options. When a buyer exercises his option, the OCC will randomly connect them with a brokerage that is short on options of that equity. Due to the lottery-like nature of the process, it is almost impossible to predict when an investor’s option may be assigned.

2 Categories of Options to Understand

As a brief summary, let’s go over the two basic categories of options. These categories and their respective merits become apparent as one learns to trade options. In a call option, the option holder possesses the right to buy the security before the contract expires. In this scenario, the seller’s obligation is to sell the option upon assignment.

The inverse of this is the put option. In this category, the holder has the right to sell to the security at the contract price. The consequence of this is that upon assignment, the seller must purchase the security at the strike price. If an investor does not own the stock, he must first buy it. After this, he must deliver it to the holder.

Initially, a seller has an edge in the options trading process. He starts with a net benefit as a premium is paid to him by the buyer without him giving any monetary return immediately. If an option is never exercised, the seller actually retains the premium if the contract expires.

However, the issues arise as the contract nears its expiry, as the chances of assignment increase exponentially. The problem for investors when called to assign are three-fold: 1) they have no control over when the option is exercised, 2) they must fulfill their end of the bargain irrespective of whether this could lead to a loss or a low gain, and 3) even if the underlying stock is not trading, in a call option the deliver the stock to the buyer.

Can an Options Seller Predict When an Option Will Be Exercised?

It would be misleading if we were say there is some magic formula that we could use to predict when an option will be exercised. Traders will understand how frequent assignment occurs once they more completely learn to trade options. However, a general statistic is that approximately 7% of options are actually ever exercised. Even though, technically, an option can be assigned any time while the contract remains open, option holders usually exercise their option near its expiration date. This is because traders usually wait to find the ideal time and observe trading prices. As you learn to trade options, you will realize that very few buyers ever exercise options ahead of expiration.

When is Options Assignment Less Likely?

Even though we cannot accurately predict when an option will be exercised, there are certain indicators traders can use. These indicators are easier to see when you learn to trade options and observe market trends.

An assignment is less probable when an option is out-of-the-money. An option is out-of-the-money when the security is trading at a higher value in the market as compared to the strike price. It is rarely recommended to sell an option that is out-of-the-money. This is because if the strike price is lower than the market value, the option holder will make a loss on the contract. If the strike price is $30, and the market value is $20 and the holder exercises the call option, they will end up taking a loss since they are buying it at a higher price. As investors learn to trade options, they can better predict the time of assignment with greater accuracy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Schaeffer logo

More Related Articles

Sign up for smart investing to get the latest news, strategies and tips to help you invest smarter..

To add symbols:

These symbols will be available throughout the site during your session.

Your symbols have been updated

Edit watchlist.

options for assignment

options for assignment

Option Assignment Process

Options trading 101 - the ultimate beginners guide to options.

Download The 12,000 Word Guide

options for assignment

One of the biggest fears that new options traders have is that they may get assigned. The option assignment process means that the option writer is obligated to deliver on the terms specified in a contract.

For example, if a put option is assigned, the options writer would need to buy the underlying security at the strike price dictated in the contract.

Likewise for a call option, the options write would need to sell the underlying security at the strike price dictated in the contract.

As an options trader you’re usually seeking to make a profit from directional bets or to hedge your portfolio.

You’re rarely, if ever, looking to actually buy or sell the underlying security so being assigned can sound like a scary prospect.

This article will explore the option assignment process so you can understand how it works and how you can prevent yourself getting stuck with buying or selling an underlying security.

When Assignment Occurs

Assignment occurs when an option holder exercises an option. Exercising an option simply means that the option holder executes the terms in the options contract.

So for example if you are holding a call option, you have the right, but not the obligation to buy the underlying security at the agreed strike price.

When you exercise the option, the option holder will need to sell the underlying security at the agreed strike price and for the agreed quantity.

If you’re dealing with European style options, you will know when expiration is possible because they can only be exercised on the expiration date itself.

option assignment process

For American style options, which is what most people trade, options can be exercised at any time before the expiration date.

This means that if you are an options writer of American style options, you could theoretically be asked at any time to comply with the terms of the contract.

Unfortunately, there is no knowing when an assignment will take place.

However, generally options are not exercised prior to expiration as it is usually much more profitable to sell the option instead.

It’s worth noting that this will only happen to you if you’re an options seller. Option buyers can never be assigned.

There are two key steps to assignment and to make it fair, the process of selecting who is assigned is random.

In the first step, the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) will issue an exercise notice to a randomly selected Clearing Member who maintains an account with the OCC.

In the second step, the Clearing Member then assigns the exercise notice to an individual account.

When You Are Most At Risk

There are several situations that can dramatically increase the risk that you will be assigned:

Situation 1: Your option is In The Money (ITM)

When an option is ITM, an option holder would stand to profit if they exercised the option.

The deeper the option is ITM, the greater the profit for the option holder and therefore the higher risk they may exercise the option and you will be assigned.

Situation 2: The option has an upcoming dividend

An ITM call buyer can profit from exercising an option before its ex-dividend date if the extrinsic value of the call is less than the amount of the dividend.

Situation 3: There is no extrinsic value left

If there is no extrinsic value left, an option buyer could be tempted to exercise the option.

If there is extrinsic value, an option buyer would typically make a bigger profit by selling the option and buying/selling shares of the underlying asset.

How You Can Avoid The Risk Of Being Assigned

There are several steps you can take to avoid, or at the very least minimise, your risk of being assigned.

The first step to consider is avoiding selling any options that have an upcoming dividend.

Before selling any option, first check that the underlying security doesn’t have an upcoming dividend and if it does, consider waiting until after the dividend has occurred (i.e. the stock has gone ex-dividend).

If you do end up selling an option with an upcoming dividend, then the second step to protecting yourself is to close your position early as your risk begins to increase.

For example, if you are short an option with an extrinsic value less than the dividend amount and the ex-dividend of the underlying security is not too far away, close your position.

Otherwise you risk being assigned and being forced to pay the dividend as well!

To completely avoid early assignment risk, you could always sell only European style options which are cash settled at expiration. You can read more that here and here .

The final way to manage your risk is to close positions well before expiration date approaches.

As the time left to expiration decreases, so too does the extrinsic value. For option buyers, it means they could stand to benefit and so there is a risk they may exercise the option.

While this article deals with the process and risks behind being assigned, there will be times when this isn’t an issue for you.

Provided you have enough capital to meet the assignment, you may be fine with being assigned.

If this is the case, you would simply have a new stock position added which you could hold onto or immediately liquidate.

In the event that you don’t have enough capital, your broker will issue you with a margin call and the position should be automatically closed.

As the process of assignment can differ between brokers, its best you contact your broker to check the specific process they use when issuing assignments to individual accounts.

In general, provided you take a few key steps to mitigate your risks, particularly around dividend issuing securities, the chances of assignment are very low.

Trade safe!

Disclaimer: The information above is for  educational purposes only and should not be treated as investment advice . The strategy presented would not be suitable for investors who are not familiar with exchange traded options. Any readers interested in this strategy should do their own research and seek advice from a licensed financial adviser.

vol trading made easy

Like it? Share it!

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

It's 100% Free

10 part iron condor course.

Access My Complete Trading Blueprint

Closed my Oct BB (a few moments ago) for 34% profit…that is the best of the 3 BBs I traded since Gav taught us the strategy…so, the next coffee or beer on me, Gav 🙂

FEATURED ARTICLES

options for assignment

Small Account Option Strategies

options for assignment

The Ultimate Guide To Implied Volatility

options for assignment

What Is A Calendar Spread?

3,500 word guide.

options for assignment

Everything You Need To Know About Butterfly Spreads

options for assignment

Iron Condors: The Complete Guide With Examples and Strategies

Understanding Options Assignment: What It Means and How to Respond

Mar 22, 2022 Educational

Some Quick Definitions

A Cautionary Tale

What is option assignment, handling assignment, avoiding options assignment.

Final Thoughts

TradeSmith Daily Logo

Receive daily news and articles directly to your inbox that will help make you a smarter investor.

MONEY TALKS WITH KEITH

Receive our free Money Talks with Keith Column directly to your inbox each week and follow one investor's journey through mistakes and success.

Related Articles

The data point that matters the most for the direction of the stock market.

Mar 14, 2023 | Educational

LikeFolio Begins Coverage on DIN and LZB – What You Need to Know About Both Stocks

Mar 10, 2023 | Educational

One Company at the Frontier of Gene-Editing Technology (Ticker Revealed Inside)

Mar 09, 2023 | Educational

Notice: Commission Flexibilities Related to Coronavirus (COVID-19) More Information

CA.Gov

Common Local Assignment Options (LAOs) for Educator Assignments in California’s Public Schools

Education Code (EC) and Title 5 Regulations (T5) provide local educational agencies (LEAs) with educator assignment options that can be used when an LEA is unable to assign a certificated employee with the appropriate credential. These options, known as Local Assignment Options (LAOs), allow flexibility at the local level and are used solely at the discretion of the LEA. The LEA is responsible for verification of all LAO requirements and should always review the language of the EC or T5.

The information provided is designed to serve as guidance only.  Local educational agencies are responsible to thoroughly review relevant Statutes and Regulations and determine the appropriateness of an assignment at the local level.

Note- Local Assignment Options:

For LAOs that require governing board authorizations, the placement should be approved by the governing board prior to the start of the assignment.  This is because educators placed in classrooms without board approval have not begun the serving based on the LAO, and are in fact misassigned. These educators will remain misassigned until the board approval is in place. Misassignments should be corrected within 30 Calendar days.

As well, governing board approval is required annually.  This is intended to guarantee transparency in assignments, as board agendas are public and accessible to parents and stakeholder groups.  In this regard, faithfully following the criteria of these LAOs may protect LEAs from legal action.

Common Local Assignment Options

Ec §35029: chief administrative officer.

Base Teaching Credential:  N/A Content Verification:  May be required to pursue a program of in-service training Board Action:  Resolution

Assignment Can Be In Setting:  Administrative Services Grade:  N/A Content:  Chief Administrative Officer

Legal Citation for Local Assignment Option:  EC §35029

EC §44256(b): Departmentalized

Local Employing Agency Must Verify Base Teaching Credential: Elementary Credential Content Verification: 12 lower or 6 upper semester units in Content taught Board Action: Resolution

Assignment Can Be In Setting:   Departmentalized Grade: 8 th and below Content:   Any

Legal Citation for Local Assignment Option:   EC §44256(b)

EC §44258.2: Departmentalized

Local Employing Agency Must Verify Base Teaching Credential: Secondary Credential Content Verification: 12 lower or 6 upper semester units in Content taught Board Action: Resolution

Assignment Can Be In Setting:   Departmentalized Grade:  5th-8th Content:   Any

EC §44258.3 (Craven): Departmentalized

Local Employing Agency Must Verify Base Teaching Credential:  Credential based on BA and Student Teaching Content Verification: Subject Knowledge as defined by board Board Action: Specific Board Policy

Assignment Can Be In Setting:   Departmentalized Grade:  K-12th  Content:   Any

Additional Guidance:   See  Advisory on Teacher Assignment Option EC §44258.3 for an example of appropriate board policies and procedures.

Legal Citation for Local Assignment Option:   EC §44258.3

EC §44258.7(b): Competitive Sport for PE Credit

Local Employing Agency Must Verify Base Teaching Credential:  Single Subject or Secondary Teacher in a subject or subjects other than Physical Education Content Verification:  Full-time employment within the school district and a minimum of 20 hours of first aid instruction appropriate for the specific sport Board Action:  Resolution

Assignment Can Be In Setting:  Departmentalized Grade:  K-12 Content:  Competitive sport for Physical Education credit

Legal Citation for Local Assignment Option:   EC §44258.7(b)

EC §§44258.7(c)(d) (Committee on Assignments): Departmentalized

Local Employing Agency Must Verify Base Teaching Credential:   Any Teaching Credential Content Verification:   Special skills and preparation in Elective taught Board Action:   Specific Board Policy as outlined in EC §§44258.7(c) and (d)

Assignment Can Be In Setting:   Departmentalized Grade:  K-12th  Content:  Elective

Legal Citation for Local Assignment Option:  EC §§44258.7(c)(d)

EC §44263: Self-Contained

Local Employing Agency Must Verify Base Teaching Credential:   Any Teaching Credential Content Verification:   60 semester units distributed among 10 Subject Areas Board Action: Resolution

Assignment Can Be In Setting:   Self-Contained Grade:  K-12th Content:   Any

EC §44263: Departmentalized

Local Employing Agency Must Verify Base Teaching Credential:   Any Teaching Credential Content Verification:   18 lower or 9 upper semester units in Content taught Board Action: Resolution

Assignment Can Be In Setting: Departmentalized Grade: K-12 th Content: Any

EC §44332: Temporary County Certificate (TCC)

Base Teaching Credential:  N/A Content Verification:  Basic Skills Requirement; Application & fee have been submitted to the Commission, and all credentialing requirements have been satisfied. Immediately upon notification that the educator does not qualify for the document requested, the LEA shall remove the educator from the assignment and the TCC shall be cancelled. Board Action:  Resolution

Assignment Can Be In Setting:  Any Grade:  Any Content:  Any

Legal Citation for Local Assignment Option:  EC §44332

EC §44831: Speech and Language Services

Base Teaching Credential:  N/A Content Verification:  License issued by the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Board and has earned a Masters degree in Communication Disorders Board Action:  Resolution

Assignment Can Be In Setting:  Services Grade:  K-12 Content:  Speech and Language Services

Legal Citation for Local Assignment Option:  EC §44831

EC §44865: Alternative Settings

Local Employing Agency Must Verify Base Teaching Credential:   Credential based on BA and Student Teaching Content Verification: None Board Action:   None

Assignment Can Be In Setting:   Independent Study; Home/Hospital; Adult Ed; Necessary Small/Continuation/Alternative/Opportunity/Juvenile Court/County or District Community Schools Grade:   K-12 th Content:   Any

EC §58803: Specialized Secondary Programs

Document Required:  Certificate of Clearance Content Verification:  Unique talents or skills from business, performing arts, or postsecondary institutions Board Action:  Resolution, and report to the Superintendent of Public Instruction the number of those persons employed, the subjects they are employed to teach, and the unique talents and skills they possess.

Assignment Can Be In Setting:  Specialized Secondary Programs Grade:  9-12 Content:  Limited to specialized secondary programs defined in  EC §58801 , including: High technology and performing arts

Legal Citation for Local Assignment Option:   EC §58803

T5 §80005(b): Departmentalized

Local Employing Agency Must Verify Base Teaching Credential:   Credential based on BA and Student Teaching Content Verification: Knowledge and Skills in Content taught Board Action: None

Assignment Can Be In Setting: Departmentalized Grade: K-12 th Content:   Elective

Legal Citation for Local Assignment Option:   T5 §80005(b)

T5 §80020.4: Staff Development

Local Employing Agency Must Verify Base Teaching Credential: Credential based on BA and Student Teaching; Credential in Subject of Staff Development* Content Verification:   Verification of Subject Expertise* Board Action:   Resolution*

Assignment Can Be In Setting:   Staff Development at the school site, school district, or county level Grade: N/A Content: Any

* Must have either a credential in the subject area of the staff development activities or have expertise in the subject area verified and approved by the school board.

T5 §80020.4.1(a): Program Coordination

Local Employing Agency Must Verify Base Teaching Credential: Credential based on BA and Student Teaching Content Verification: None Board Action: None

Assignment Can Be In Setting: Program Coordination at the school site Grade: N/A Content: Any

Educator Login

Application Status

We are currently processing applications received before: 1/3/2023

Credentials Links

Information

baseball scouter logo

What is Designated for Assignment (DFA) Mean in Baseball?

We are reader supported. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Also, as an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Of all the distinctive terms used in Major League Baseball, “Designated for assignment” must be near the top of the list for the hardest to explain to new fans. When a player is declared this, often stated as “He was DFA’d,” what exactly does it mean?

Designated for assignment refers to a player’s contract, and it means the team will immediately remove that player from its 40-man roster. For MLB fans, it means you will no longer be seeing that player on that team, at least for a decent spell.

Typically MLB teams do this to clear space for another move, or simply to rid a player from the squad entirely.

Once a player is officially DFA’d, a 7-day period begins, where the club must make a decision about the next destination for that player. In other words, it’s a way for baseball teams to put a player in temporary limbo while they try to figure out their roster situation.

During the 7-day period, that player can be sent to one of the team’s minor league affiliates; traded to another team; or placed on waivers, a list of players for other teams to acquire (under certain rules).

Basically, when you see this term attached to a player, that person is being moved off the regular MLB team at least for the time being. Sometimes, though not often, they are returned to their original team.

Baseball Club Options with Players Designated for Assignment

Once a player is DFA’d, the clock starts for the club to pick an option for that player’s immediate future. Those options are:

2B. If the player on the waiver wire is claimed, his new team must immediately put him on their 40-man roster.

2C. If the player, over a specified period of time, is unclaimed from waivers, he can be assigned to his previous team’s minor league system. Unless: The player has enough service time in the major leagues, or has run out of minor league options (See below), in which case he becomes a free agent who can sign a contract with any team.

Types of Rosters in Major League Baseball

All this talk assumes fans know what a 40-man roster is ~ and it’s not just the list of players the current MLB team can use for games. That would be the 26-man roster.

Here’s a breakdown of the 2 types of MLB rosters, which are essentially lists of their players who either can be used in games (26-man), or who are in line to play in games in the near future as well (40-man).

26-Man Roster in MLB

The 26-man roster (or 24- or 25-man rosters in seasons past) is for players available to participate in MLB game play. Players not on the 26-man roster, such as those on injured lists, or in the minor leagues, cannot be entered into an MLB game.

So, MLB teams cannot just sign anyone off the street and instantly insert them into a game. Well, maybe not instantaneously, but at least a full day. However, even that would involve some juggling of personnel, as noted in this article.

40-Man Roster in MLB

options for assignment

A club’s 40-man roster is filled by a combination of players on the 26-man roster; along with players on various injured lists (7-, 10-, and 15-day injured lists); on an emergency list for bereavement or a family medical emergency; and some minor league players.

All players on a 26-man roster are also on the 40-man roster. That leaves a club 14 spots to manage all year long ~ and not just during the regular season.

The 40-man roster is important to watch during the offseason , as all those players are protected from other teams “taking” them in what’s called the Rule 5 Draft, held at the end of every year during the MLB’s Winter Meetings.

Notes on the Rule 5 Draft in Major League Baseball

Since 1920, the Rule 5 Draft has given minor league players opportunities with new MLB clubs ~ if their original club did not protect them from this draft by keeping them on the 40-man roster.

The way it works is, clubs with a spot open on their own 40-man roster select players not on 40-man rosters of the other clubs. This ends up like the regular MLB draft, with teams selecting in reverse order of the standings the previous season.

Players are eligible for selection if they are not on their team’s 40-man roster at the time of the draft, and they have either spent 4 seasons in professional baseball after signing at age 19 or older; or spent 5 seasons in pro ball after signing at age 18 or younger.

Even when drafting an eligible player, it’s not over. The new team pays the player’s previous club $100,000, places the player on its 40-man roster, AND then must keep the player on the 26-man roster for the entire next season.

This last requirement makes selecting other team’s unprotected minor league players a true challenge, as they do not yet know if that player will succeed at the major league level. If not, the team pretty much loses a roster spot through season’s end, filled by a player who can hardly contribute.

If the new club takes that player off the 26-man roster, however, it has to offer to return him to his previous team for $50,000.

Perhaps the most famous Rule 5 case was that of Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente, signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers at age 19 and buried on their Montreal, Canada minor league team, where he got all of 155 at bats .

That didn’t fool Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who that winter selected Clemente in the Rule 5 Draft ~ and then had to keep him on the roster that next season even as he struggled as a young foreign player competing at the game’s highest level.

Eventually the Puerto Rican hero came around, and became one of the best outfielders of all time.

Why Does ‘Designated for Assignment’ in Baseball Have to be So Complicated?

This all may seem confusing, but this system of using players in MLB game play, and also having extra players in case of injuries or emergencies, has evolved with the game. It’s a necessary structure that MLB clubs agree to abide by, for a lot of reasons, avoiding mayhem among them.

When a new fan sees these types of terms, usually in the agate type or side notes in sports sections, or sometimes added to the end of game news reports, they should consider just how hard it is to field a professional baseball team on a near-daily basis.

Baseball might look leisurely to play, but in reality the players exert parts of their body quite extensively ~ in some instances beyond what they are capable of naturally. A summary of a baseball player’s body that could force him off the field at any time:

Add to all that the mental aspect of living life (e.g. having a wife and family) while away from home for weeks at a time, and the constant stress of having to perform well to remain in the game (and make more money). All the games, practices, stress, travel, loneliness, and more, can take a toll on any ballplayer.

In summary, any of these body (and mind) areas can take a baseball player out of service, maybe just for a few days, or a few weeks, or even many months. You can tell how often players get hurt by the MLB’s types of injured lists: the 7-day, 15-day, and 60-day injured list.

Roster Management in Baseball

All this gets us to the people responsible for getting the best players possible on the field during any MLB game. It’s not as simple as sending out the same 9 guys day in and day out. Pitchers in particular cannot pitch every single day, so extra pitchers must be brought along.

Some players might hurt a body part, but not in a major way, so all they need is a bit of rest. In these instances, pro baseball teams need a bench full of replacement players waiting to get in the game.

There’s also some competitive strategy involved. Baseball clubs can make changes to their roster daily, so if they foresee a problem upcoming, they can make roster changes to address it. Examples:

In other words, the managers (and general managers) of MLB teams are constantly tinkering with their rosters, for a lot of reasons. Terms like DFA exist to add structure to all of this, in an attempt to ensure fairness for all the clubs, and avoid anarchy.

In summary, the designated for assignment system exists so MLB teams can add a newly acquired player onto their roster ~ through a free agent signing, a trade, a waiver wire grab, or to pull a player up from a minor league team; or to address players bouncing between the injured lists.

Whenever a player is getting healthy enough to return, fans usually get quite excited. But understand, for every player returning to play, another is forced to leave.

Common Questions

Question: what is the difference between being designated for assign and being “optioned”.

Answer: Remaining on the 40-man roster, or not. To be optioned means a player on the 40-man roster is moved to an “optional assignment” with one of the club’s minor league affiliates. An “option” is good for an entire season; and players only get so many options before clubs can no longer send them to a minor league team for roster management purposes. With DFA, if a player has an option remaining, that is something the club could choose to do in the 7-day “decision” period.

Q.: Why do teams only get 7 days to decide what to do with DFA’d players?

A.: It’s according to the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which is the operating structure of the MLB between clubs and players. This period is adjusted periodically upon agreement of a majority of owners and the players. For instance, in the CBA of 2012-16, the period was 10 days.

Option Assignment: What It Is, How to Avoid It, and Examples

B. James

Options assignment is a must-know concept for anyone trading options, especially those selling them. It’s the process by which an option seller can be held to their contract terms — and it has risks.

What is option assignment?

When an option holder decides to exercise their option, they’ll first need to notify their broker. This will trigger a notification of assignment to the writer (seller) of said option and force them to fulfill their side of the trade – be it buying or selling the underlying asset at whatever price is agreed upon.

Stay up to date!

Weekly news and knowledge for options traders. 

Reasons for assignment

Though it’s not common, early assignment on options trades is still a possibility. Specifically for illiquid contracts that have wide bid/ask spreads or those with upcoming dividend payments – so best to keep an eye out!

How to avoid option assignment

Another way to avoid assignment is by rolling your option. This means you would close out the current contract and open a new one at an expiry further in time or with a strike further out-of-the-money. It could take some practice, but it’s worth understanding if you want more control over how your options are managed!

Does option assignment count as a day trade?

In general, a day trade is defined as the opening and closing of a security on the same trading day. However, the exercise or assignment of an option contract does not count as a day trade.

What is dividend risk?

Most traders would find the extrinsic value left in the call option by using the value of the corresponding put. In the example below, let’s assume the stock goes ex-dividend tomorrow and pays a 26-cent dividend.

If we had sold the 18-strike call, using the put we can quickly see it has roughly 7 cents of extrinsic value. Since the dividend is higher than the extrinsic value, this option is at high risk of being assigned early.

By understanding the basics of options assignment, why it happens, and ways to avoid it; you can rest easy knowing that you’re prepared for anything. So next time option assignment comes knocking, you’ll be ready!

Related Posts

Options trading hours: can you trade after-hours, probability of profit (pop): what it is & how it’s used, what is an at-the-money option.

Create an assignment

This article is for teachers.

When you create an assignment, you can post it immediately, save a draft, or schedule it to post at a later date. After students complete and turn in their work, you can grade and return it to the students.

Open all   |   Close all

Create and post assignments 

When you create an assignment, you can:

Select individual students

Add a grade category, change the point value, add a due date or time, add a topic, add attachments, add a rubric.

Go to classroom.google.com  and click Sign In.

Sign in with your Google Account. For example,  [email protected] or [email protected] .  Learn more .

and then

You can continue to edit and customize your assignment. Otherwise, if you’re ready, see below to post, schedule, or save your assignment .

Select additional classes

Assignments to multiple classes go to all students in those classes.

Down Arrow

Unless you’re selecting multiple classes, you can select individual students. You can’t select more than 100 students at a time.

Use grade categories to organize assignments. With grade categories, you and your students can see the category an assignment belongs to, such as Homework or Essays . Teachers also see the categories on the Grades page.

For more information on grade categories, go to Add a grade category to posts or Set up grading .

You can change the point value of an assignment or make the assignment ungraded. By default, assignments are set at 100 points.

By default, an assignment has no due date. To set a due date:

""

Note : You can only add one topic to an assignment.

Learn more about how to add topics to the Classwork page .

File upload

""

""

Note : This option is only available before you post an assignment.

""

Use an add-on

For instructions, go to  Use add-ons in Classroom

For instructions, go to Create or reuse a rubric for an assignment .

For instructions, go to Turn on originality reports .

You can post an assignment immediately, or schedule it to post later. If you don’t want to post it yet, you can save it as a draft. To see scheduled and drafted assignments, click Classwork .

Post an assignment

Schedule the assignment to post later

Scheduled assignments might be delayed up to 5 minutes after the post time.

After scheduling multiple assignments at once, you can still edit assignments later by clicking into each class and changing them individually.

Save an assignment as a draft

You can open and edit draft assignments on the  Classwork  page.

Manage assignments 

Edits affect individual classes. For multi-class assignments, make edits in each class.

Note : If you change an assignment's name, the assignment's Drive folder name isn't updated. Go to Drive and rename the folder.

Edit a posted assignment

""

Edit a scheduled assignment

Edit a draft assignment

Changes are automatically saved.

You can only delete an assignment on the Classwork page.

If you delete an assignment, all grades and comments related to the assignment are deleted. However, any attachments or files created by you or the students are still available in Drive.

Related articles

Need more help?

Try these next steps:.

Options Assignment Explained

Learn what an options assignment is and what it means when an options seller gets assigned.

tastylive logo

Mar 16, 2023

Assignment Risk Explained

Assignment risk is real, but assignment is rare. The crew breaks down how your risk profile doesn't necessarily change for trades that still have time to expiration, and how your profit profile can actually improve after being assigned.

Tune in to learn more with a live Q&A session and ADBE earnings preview!

More like this

tasty live content is created, produced, and provided solely by tastylive, Inc. (“tasty live ”) and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not, nor is it intended to be, trading or investment advice or a recommendation that any security, futures contract, digital asset, other product, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any person. Trading securities, futures products, and digital assets involve risk and may result in a loss greater than the original amount invested. tasty live , through its content, financial programming or otherwise, does not provide investment or financial advice or make investment recommendations. Investment information provided may not be appropriate for all investors and is provided without respect to individual investor financial sophistication, financial situation, investing time horizon or risk tolerance. tasty live is not in the business of transacting securities trades, nor does it direct client commodity accounts or give commodity trading advice tailored to any particular client’s situation or investment objectives. Supporting documentation for any claims (including claims made on behalf of options programs), comparisons, statistics, or other technical data, if applicable, will be supplied upon request. tasty live is not a licensed financial adviser, registered investment adviser, or a registered broker-dealer.  Options, futures, and futures options are not suitable for all investors.  Prior to trading securities, options, futures, or futures options, please read the applicable risk disclosures, including, but not limited to, the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options Disclosure and the Futures and Exchange-Traded Options Risk Disclosure found on tastytrade.com/disclosures .

tastytrade, Inc. ("tastytrade”) is a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA, NFA, and SIPC. tastytrade was previously known as tastyworks, Inc. (“tastyworks”). tastytrade offers self-directed brokerage accounts to its customers. tastytrade does not give financial or trading advice, nor does it make investment recommendations. You alone are responsible for making your investment and trading decisions and for evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of tastytrade’s systems, services or products. tastytrade is a wholly-owned subsidiary of tastylive, Inc.

tastytrade has entered into a Marketing Agreement with tasty live (“Marketing Agent”) whereby tastytrade pays compensation to Marketing Agent to recommend tastytrade’s brokerage services. The existence of this Marketing Agreement should not be deemed as an endorsement or recommendation of Marketing Agent by tastytrade. tastytrade and Marketing Agent are separate entities with their own products and services. tasty live is the parent company of tastytrade.

tastycrypto is provided solely by tasty Software Solutions, LLC. tasty Software Solutions, LLC is a separate but affiliate company of tastylive, Inc. Neither tasty live nor any of its affiliates are responsible for the products or services provided by tasty Software Solutions, LLC. Cryptocurrency trading is not suitable for all investors due to the number of risks involved. The value of any cryptocurrency, including digital assets pegged to fiat currency, commodities, or any other asset, may go to zero.

© copyright 2013 - 2023 tastylive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.  Applicable portions of the Terms of Use on tastylive.com apply.  Reproduction, adaptation, distribution, public display, exhibition for profit, or storage in any electronic storage media in whole or in part is prohibited under penalty of law, provided that you may download tasty live ’s podcasts as necessary to view for personal use. tasty live was previously known as tastytrade, Inc. tasty live is a trademark/servicemark owned by tastylive, Inc.

Options Assignment

Introduction articles, what is an options assignment.

In options trading, an assignment occurs when an option is exercised. 

As we know, a buyer of an option has the right but not the obligation to buy or sell an underlying asset depending on what option they have purchased. When the buyer exercises this right, the seller will be assigned and will have to deliver or take delivery of what they are contractually obliged to. For stock options, it is typically 1000 shares per contract for the UK and 100 shares per contract in the US. 

As you can see, a buyer will never be assigned, only the seller is at risk of assignment. The buyer, however, can be auto exercised if the option expires in-the-money. 

Can Options be assigned before expiration?

In short, Yes, but it depends on the style of options you are trading. 

American Style – Yes, this type of option can be assigned on or before expiry. 

European Style – No, this type of option can only be assigned on the expiry date as defined in the contract specifications.

Options Assignment Example

For example, an investor buys XYZ PLC 400 call when the stock is trading at 385. The stock in the coming weeks rises to 425 after some good news, the buyer then decides to exercise their right early to buy the XYZ PLC stock at 400.

In this scenario, the call seller (writer) has been assigned and will have to deliver stock at 400 to the buyer (sell their stock at 400 when the prevailing market is 425). 

An option typically would only be assigned if it is in the money, taking into account factors like dividends which do play an important role in exercise/assignments.

Can an Options Assignment be Prevented?

Assignment can sometimes come as a bit of a surprise but normally you should see it coming. You can only work to prevent assignment by closing the option before expiry or before any possible risk of assignment.

OptionsDesk Tips & Considerations

You should always have enough funds in your account to cover any assignment risk. If you have a short call position and it is in-the-money at the time of an ex-dividend be aware of extra assignment risk here as buyer/holder of the option may look to exercise to qualify for the dividend. Assignments can happen at any time!

Check out our other articles

Important information : Derivative products are considerably higher risk and more complex than more conventional investments, come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage and are not, therefore, suitable for everyone. Our website offers information about trading in derivative products, but not personal advice. If you’re not sure whether trading in derivative products is right for you, you should contact an independent financial adviser. For more information, please read our Important Derivative Product Trading Notes .

Mike Martin

Option exercise and assignment explained w/ visuals.

Last updated on February 11th, 2022 , 06:38 am

Buyers of options have the right to exercise their option at or before the option’s expiration. When an option is exercised, the option holder will buy (for exercised calls) or sell (for exercised puts) 100 shares of stock per contract at the option’s strike price.

Conversely, when an option is exercised, a trader who is short the option will be assigned 100 long (for short puts) or short (for short calls) shares per contract.

The following sequences summarize exercise and assignment for calls and puts (assuming one option contract ):

Call Buyer Exercises Option   ➜  Purchases 100 shares at the call’s strike price.

Call Seller Assigned  ➜  Sells/shorts 100 shares at the call’s strike price.

Put Buyer Exercises Option  ➜  Sells/shorts 100 shares at the put’s strike price.

Put Seller Assigned   ➜  Purchases 100 shares at the put’s strike price.

Let’s look at some specific examples to drill down on this concept.

options for assignment

The Best Brokerage for Traders

We’ve been trading with tastytrade for years, benefiting from their trader-friendly fees:

Use the link below to check out the tastytrade $100 to $2,000 signup bonus offer.

* Applicable exchange, clearing, and regulatory fees still apply to all opening and closing trades except for cryptocurrency orders which are not subject to exchange, clearing, and regulatory fees.

Exercise and Assignment Examples

In the following table, we’ll examine how various options convert to stock positions for the option buyer and seller:

exercise assign table 1

As you can see, exercise and assignment is pretty straightforward: when an option buyer exercises their option, they purchase (calls) or sell (puts) 100 shares of stock at the strike price . A trader who is short the assigned option is obligated to fulfill the opposite position as the option exerciser. 

Automatic Exercise at Expiration

Another important thing to know about exercise and assignment is that standard in-the-money equity options are automatically exercised at expiration. So, traders may end up with stock positions by letting their options expire in-the-money.

An in-the-money option is defined as any option with at least $0.01 of intrinsic value at expiration . For example, a standard equity call option with a strike price of 100 would be automatically exercised into 100 shares of stock if the stock price is at $100.01 or higher at expiration.

What if You Don't Have Enough Available Capital?

Even if you don’t have enough capital in your account, you can still be assigned or automatically exercised into a stock position. For example, if you only have $10,000 in your account but you let one 500 call expire in-the-money, you’ll be long 100 shares of a $500 stock, which is a $50,000 position. Clearly, the $10,000 in your account isn’t enough to buy $50,000 worth of stock, even on 4:1 margin.

If you find yourself in a situation like this, your brokerage firm will come knocking almost instantaneously. In fact, your brokerage firm will close the position for you if you don’t close the position quickly enough.

Why Options are Rarely Exercised

At this point, you understand the basics of exercise and assignment. Now, let’s dive a little deeper and discuss what an option buyer forfeits when they exercise their option.

When an option is exercised, the option is converted into long or short shares of stock. However, it’s important to note that the option buyer will lose the extrinsic value of the option when they exercise the option. Because of this, options with lots of extrinsic value remaining are unlikely to be exercised. Conversely, options consisting of all intrinsic value and very little extrinsic value are more likely to be exercised.

The following table demonstrates the losses from exercising an option with various amounts of extrinsic value:

exercise table

As we can see here, exercising options with lots of extrinsic value is not favorable. 

Why? Consider the 95 call trading for $7. Exercising the call would result in an effective purchase price of $102 because shares are bought at $95, but $7 was paid for the right to buy shares at $95. 

With an effective purchase price of $102 and the stock trading for $100, exercising the option results in a loss of $2 per share, or $200 on 100 shares.

Even if the 95 call was previously purchased for less than $7, exercising an option with $2 of extrinsic value will always result in a P/L that’s $200 lower (per contract) than the current P/L. F

or example, if the trader initially purchased the 95 call for $2, their P/L with the option at $7 would be $500 per contract. However, if the trader decided to exercise the 95 call with $2 of extrinsic value, their P/L would drop to +$300 because they just gave up $200 by exercising.

7% Of Options Are Exercised

Because of the fact that traders give up money by exercising an option with extrinsic value, most options are not exercised. In fact, according to the Options Clearing Corporation,  only 7% of options were exercised in 2017 . Of course, this may not factor in all brokerage firms and customer accounts, but it still demonstrates a low exercise rate from a large sample size of trading accounts.

So, in almost all cases, it’s more beneficial to sell the long option and buy or sell shares instead of exercising. We like to call this approach a “synthetic exercise.”

Congrats! You’ve learned the basics of exercise and assignment. If you’d like to know how the exercise and assignment process actually works, continue to the next section!

Who Gets Assigned When an Option is Exercised?

With thousands of traders long and short options in the market, who actually gets assigned when one of the traders exercises their option?

In this section, we’ll run through the exercise and assignment process for options so you know how the assignment decision occurs.

If a trader is short a single option, how do they get assigned if one of a thousand other traders exercises that option?

The short answer is that the process is random. For example, if there are 5,000 traders who are long a call option and 5,000 traders who are short that call option, an account with the short option will be randomly assigned the exercise notice. The random process ensures that the option assignment system is fair

Visualizing Assignment and Exercise

The following visual describes the general process of exercise and assignment:

Exercise assign process

If you’d like, you can read the OCC’s detailed assignment procedure here  (warning: it’s intense!).

Now you know how the assignment procedure works. In the final section, we’ll discuss how to quickly gauge the likelihood of early assignment on short options.

Assessing Early Option Assignment Risk

The final piece of understanding exercise and assignment is gauging the risk of early assignment on a short option.

As mentioned early, only 7% of options were exercised in 2017 (according to the OCC). So, being assigned on short options is rare, but it does happen. While a specific probability of getting assigned early can’t be determined, there are scenarios in which assignment is more or less likely.

The following scenarios summarize  broad generalizations  of early assignment probabilities in various scenarios:

Assessing Assignment Risk

In regards to the dividend scenario, early assignment on in-the-money short calls with less extrinsic value than the dividend is more likely because the dividend payment covers the loss from the extrinsic value when exercising the option.

All in all, the risk of being assigned early on a short option is typically very low for the reasons discussed in this guide. However, it’s likely that you will be assigned on a short option at some point while trading options (unless you don’t sell options!), but at least now you’ll be prepared!

Next Lesson

Option Trading for Beginners

Options Trading for Beginners

intrinsic vs extrinsic value

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Value in Options Trading Explained

Greek Pillars

Option Greeks Explained: Delta, Gamma, Theta & Vega

Projectfinance options tutorials.

➥ Bullish Strategies

➥ Bearish Strategies

➥ Neutral Strategies

➥ Vertical Spreads Guide

☆ Options Trading for Beginners ☆

➥ Basics of Calls and Puts

➥ What is a Strike Price?

➥ Option Expiration

➥ Intrinsic and Extrinsic Value

➥ Exercise and Assignment

➥ The Bid-Ask Spread

➥ Volume and Open Interest

➥ Option Chain Explained

➥ Option Greeks 101

➥ Delta Explained

➥ Gamma Explained

➥ Theta Explained

➥ Vega Explained

➥ Implied Volatility Basics

➥ What is the VIX Index?

➥ The Expected Move

➥ Trading VIX Options

➥ Trading VIX Futures

➥ The VIX Term Structure

➥ IV Rank vs. IV Percentile

➥ Option ​Order Types 101

➥ Stop-Loss Orders On Options Explained

➥ Stop Limit Order in Options: Examples W/ Visuals

➥ Limit Order in Option Trading Explained w/ Visuals

➥ Market Order in Options: Don’t Throw Away Money!

➥ TIF Orders Types Explained: DAY, GTC, GTD, EXT, GTC-EXT, MOC, LOC

Additional Resources

Exercise and Assignment – CME Group

Learn About Exercise and Assignment – CME Group

Chris Butler portrait

About the Author

Chris Butler received his Bachelor’s degree in Finance from DePaul University and has nine years of experience in the financial markets. 

Chris started the projectfinance YouTube channel in 2016, which has accumulated over 25 million views from investors globally.

Our Authors

Share this post

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

options for assignment

Quick Links

Other links.

© 2023 projectfinance, All Rights Reserved.

Disclaimer: Neither projectfinance or any of its officers, directors, employees, other personnel, representatives, agents or independent contractors is, in such capacities, a licensed financial adviser, registered investment adviser, registered broker-dealer or FINRA|SIPC|NFA-member firm. projectfinance does not provide investment or financial advice or make investment recommendations. projectfinance is not in the business of transacting trades, nor does projectfinance agree to direct your brokerage accounts or give trading advice tailored to your particular situation. Nothing contained in our content constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, promotion, or endorsement of any particular security, other investment product, transaction or investment. Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time. Past Performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

tastyworks, Inc. (“tastyworks”) has entered into a Marketing Agreement with projectfinance (“Marketing Agent”) whereby tastyworks pays compensation to projectfinance to recommend tastyworks’ brokerage services. The existence of this Marketing Agreement should not be deemed as an endorsement or recommendation of projectfinance by tastyworks and/or any of its affiliated companies. Neither tastyworks nor any of its affiliated companies are responsible for the privacy practices of projectfinance or this website. tastyworks does not warrant the accuracy or content of the products or services offered by projectfinance or this website. projectfinance is independent and is not an affiliate of tastyworks.

Options Assignment Process

A more advanced tutorial on the exact process that happens behind the scenes when an option contract gets assigned. From the exercise request to your broker and the OCC's handling of the assignment to the ultimate party who is given shares or stock. Our hope is that by understanding what happens and what parties are involved you'll feel more comfortable with the process should (and when) it happens to a position you are trading.

In this video tutorial, we’re going to talk about the options assignment process. This is going to be specifically geared towards option writers and option sellers. Most people are really concerned about options assignment, their fear of options assignment big-time, but I’m going to tell you it’s not that hard of a process to go through.

I’ve been through it a lot of times myself, and you just want to know what's involved and what parties are involved and how everything works out. The good thing is that less than 10% of options are ever exercised and it usually happens the last week of trading, so that does help with just the numbers.

Most of your options, if you're short in options, are either going to expire, or somebody is going to close it out and reverse the order before expiration. But let’s talk about the option assignment process.

If you’ve watched any other videos, you can see that we’ve used this graph before, but we’re going to talk about this particular assignment process down here with the call writer. The process starts with an option buyer who sends an exercise notice to his broker.

The broker then sends that notice to the OCC. The OCC delivers shares to the broker and makes this guy whole. I’ve talked about this particular process up here in a different video tutorial under options exercise process.

What I want to specifically talk about here is what happens when you get assigned a contract. After all, this happens, the OCC now has an outstanding order for options exercise it has to deliver to somebody.

Somebody has to get the other end of this trade. What the OCC does is it randomly selects a member firm who is short and exercise call, so this could be your firm, it could not be your firm, it just randomly occurs.

Your broker then gets this notice from the OCC that they've been exercised on one of the contracts. Immediately before doing anything else, they want to make sure that they’re good and whole with the OCC, so they immediately deliver shares to the OCC, so that the OCC is virtually out of the picture at this point.

At that point, then they go through their internal process of determining who is going to get this exercise notice. If your broker happens to use a random basis, that means that any call writer or any call seller or any put seller or put writer is going to get randomly selected out of all the clientele who are short options.

Most firms go by the random process, but there are some firms who go by the first-in-first-out of FIFO basis meaning that the first people to trade those are the first also to get executed with any short exercise notice.

When you get assigned, basically what happens is that the broker delivers you the assignment notice and you have to come up with either the money or the shares to make good on that assignment or exercise notice.

Some brokers have different timelines for how long this can take. Most people will say that it can happen by the end of the day, so you’ll get assigned the day before and by the close of business the next day, you have to have either the cash value of those shares or the actual shares themselves delivered back to the broker.

If you’re short a call for example in this case, you either have to deliver shares in which case if you’re a covered call, you would just lose your shares that you already own if you wrote a covered call or you have to deliver the value to buy those shares in the open market which are another way that they can do it.

The options assignment process is not that complicated. It involves a couple of different key things. What I always tell people is that you want to make sure that you go directly to your broker and find out exactly what their process is, how long that they require for you to deliver the shares or the cash value and how long you have to actually go through this process.

A ny fees that might be involved in options assignment that you might not be aware of. It’s always important to understand who you’re dealing with and what the terms are before you start making any trades in the options market.

As always, I thank you guys for watching this video. And if you like the video, please use the social links right below here just to quickly share this video with any of your friends, family or colleagues on your favorite social network.

Options Assignment Process

Options Expiration

Options expiration explained, what is the options clearing corporation (occ), physical vs. cash settlement options, american vs. european style options, weekly options expiration, weekly expiration tags/codes, options exercise process, trading timeline (duration), option "mini" contracts, find new trade ideas.

MacBook mockup

Option Assignment and Exercise for spread

options for assignment

I have purchased the following pair of option spread due to expire on Mar 17. On expiry date, the TSLA is at, say 180, which means that I am going to be assigned the short leg. As I am in Hong Kong with a different time zone and I will only be aware of the assignment after the end of Mar 17 trading day. Is there enough time for me to exercise the long leg when I wake up the next day?

TSLA Mar17'23 176.67 PUT - BOT

TSLA Mar17'23 183.33 PUT - SLD

Thanks for your advice.

' src=

As far I know you can give an advanced note in IBKR and they will do it for you automatically. But let us know of the result because I'm interested as well.

Long ITM options exercise automatically unless you instruct IBKR to lapse by 17:30 ET of the expiration day..

Long OTM/ATM options can be exercised manually by providing IBKR with instructions to do so by 17:30 ET of the expiration day.

About Community

Subreddit Icon

Ranked by Size

Instructure

lelandkrum

Two options for assignments

KristinL

Annotated student submissions

Events on calendar, how to add a certificate to a course, quiz group/question title in downloadable file, help on sis conversion.

Webull

webull

IRA-Reviews.com provides reviews of services based on our personal opinions. We may be compensated by the businesses we review. The content presented on IRA-Reviews.com does not constitute investment advice and should not be used as the basis for any investment decision. Copyright 2011-2023 IRA-Reviews.com. All rights are reserved.

'Sexual Fantasy' School Assignment in Oregon Sparks Parent Backlash

A school in Oregon has responded to a backlash after parents were concerned about an assignment that asked students to detail sexual fantasies, according to reports.

Last week, an image of an assignment that a student received from a school in Eugene, Oregon, went viral on social media.

The manner in which children are taught sex education has become a hotly debated and political topic in recent years.

Republican lawmakers in several states across the U.S. have begun taking steps to impose greater restrictions on sex education, while some Democrats have argued such moves would stifle children's understanding of sex and relationships.

Sexual education

The assignment was issued to students who had missed a previous class and was entitled Fantasy Story.

The instructions read: "For those students who were absent, you will write a short story of a paragraph or two. This story is a sexual fantasy that will have NO penetration of any kind or oral sex (no way of passing an STI).

"You will choose 3 items (romantic music, candles, massage oil, feather, feather boa, flavored syrup, etc) to use in your story.

"Your story should show that you can show and receive loving physical affection without having sex."

This quickly sparked a debate on social media with many questioning why this was being taught in schools in the first place. The Eugene School District 4J confirmed on March 13 that the viral image was indeed given to students at Churchill High School, according to a KCBY 11 report.

The district has since pulled the assignment from the syllabus.

Review Underway

According to Melanie Davis, a program manager for OWL (Our Whole Lives), a sexual education program, said the assignment was unauthorized and out of context.

She said: "This assignment is an unauthorized, out-of-context adaptation of a facilitated group activity in Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education for Grades 10-12, 1st ed., which is out of print."

The district has also said that there is currently a review underway to look at other element of the OWL curriculum.

Last week, Churchill Principal Missy Cole sent a letter to parents, saying: "I am certain you are aware of concerns that have been raised around a health 2 – human sexuality, class assignment. Our administration is working with the district office to review the 2016 adopted secondary health curriculum – OWL: Our Whole Lives to determine the full context of the assignment.

"At this time, the assignment has been removed from the class syllabus and will not be a part of students' grades. The OWL curriculum is utilized by many districts across the state and is endorsed by the Oregon Department of Education.

"Families are provided the course syllabus at the start of each term with an option to opt their student out of some or all of the coursework. As always, we welcome the review of curriculum and discussions with our families.

"Moving forward, we are working with our curriculum team to assess current health curriculum units and make appropriate adjustments as needed.

"Additionally, the district has begun the process of reviewing and selecting a new health curriculum to replace the OWL content that will be completed by the end of the school year.

"For families with additional questions, our building administration is available as always. Thank you for your ongoing support and advocacy for our students."

The OWL program is developed by the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist Association, according to the Our Whole Lives Twitter page.

Explaining the program on the United Church of Christ page, it is described as: "A series of sexuality education programs for six age groups: grades K-1, grades 4-6, grades 7-9, grades 10-12, Young Adults and Adults.

"The resources are written by professional sexuality educators and provide accurate information for parents, teachers and pastors to be used in the affirming and supportive setting of our churches."

Writer Connie Larkman of UCC News spoke to Newsweek about the incident and said: "Our Whole Lives (OWL) is an age-appropriate sexuality education curriculum.

"It is available for sale to the public, and as such any modifications of the curriculum are not representative of the OWL program."

Newsweek has contacted Churchill High School via email for comment.

options for assignment

options for assignment

Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2023 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset . Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions . Legal Statement . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper .

Utah school gives kids 'disgusting' insects to eat in class for climate assignment on cows killing the Earth

'there's only one right answer to this essay. and it's that americans should be eating bugs,' a teacher said.

Vivek Ramaswamy: Here's the dirty little secret about the climate religion - it has nothing to do with the climate

Vivek Ramaswamy: Here's the dirty little secret about the climate religion - it has nothing to do with the climate

Strive Asset Management Founder and executive chairman Vivek Ramaswamy on the dark side of the climate 'religion' that has arisen among the left on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

A middle school in Utah's Nebo School District gave sixth-grade students "disgusting" insects to eat last week as part of an English assignment on climate change, claiming it would save the environment from cows which were "killing the world," according to a mom who spoke with Fox News Digital. 

" Middle schoolers loved the 'ewww' factor, many of them gave bugs a try (and even a few staff members!). Many thanks to our English teachers for creating fun and engaging lessons," the Spring Canyon Middle school said about the March 7 assignment. 

Bugs were purchased from a commercial site that is "safe for consumption," the district said. 

The mother of one of the students – Amanda Wright – told Fox News she believed the kids were being subjected to "indoctrination" into a " dark climate change religion ." She challenged the school's principal Alison Hansen on the assignment after her daughter found it uncomfortable.

ARIZONA SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER SAYS DISTRICT SHOULD REJECT HIRING TEACHERS WITH CHRISTIAN VALUES: 'NOT...SAFE'

Bugs were given to students by the Spring Canyon Middle School. 

Bugs were given to students by the Spring Canyon Middle School.  (Middle School | Fox News Digital)

'F---ING ANGRY' MARXIST TEACHER CALLS FOR URGENT WAR AGAINST CAPITALISM: 'REVOLUTIONS INVOLVE VIOLENCE'

The climate change assignment instructed sixth-graders to write an argumentative essay, but did not permit students to disagree. The only acceptable answer was that humans should eat insects for their protein instead of cows, which are destroying the Ozone layer with methane gas. 

Some students were given extra credit as an incentive to eat the insects. 

Wright complained to the administration, and set up a meeting which she recorded. 

"[My daughter] wasn't given an option to give an argument," Wright said about the argumentative essay in the meeting. 

"Well, the assignment was about finding facts to support," Hansen said. 

"All the evidence has suggested, that we probably should be eating bugs – it's good for the environment, etc. But I didn't know that that was an offensive topic to indicate," teacher Kim Cutler said, according to an audio recording. 

A separate video recording was taken by Wright's daughter in the classroom. 

"How come we can't state our opinion and write that we shouldn't be eating bugs?" she asked Cutler.

Principal Nebo School District

Principal Nebo School District (iStock | Getty | Nebo School District)

"Because we don't have any evidence to support it," Cutler said. 

"It's kind of weird that I gave you a topic where there is only one right answer. We don't want to eat bugs and it's gross. But should we be eating bugs? Yeah, because we're killing the world by raising cows and animals. So we need to, not get rid of cows, but like, try to balance our diet so that not so much of our land is being used to raise cows, cause it's killing the Ozone layer."

"What if you wanted to – " the student interrupted.

MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER CLAIMS IT'S 'WHITE SUPREMACY' TO OPPOSE THIEVERY: 'BURN THIS MOTHERF----- TO THE GROUND'

The teacher said, "You don't have any evidence to support it. There's only one right answer to this essay. And it's that Americans should be eating bugs. Everyone in the world is eating them, it's healthy for the environment and there's just, there's only one right answer."

Cutler later explained in a meeting with the parent that the "indoctrination" that humans must eat bugs to protect the environment was provided in a district training . 

She explained that she did not know there were downsides to eating bugs – and apologized for not allowing students to write about an alternative perspective.

"I am not aware of the agenda part," she said. "I am sorry for that… it wasn't intending to harm anyone."

A sixth-grade student in Utah recorded her teacher stating that only one point of view on the assignment was permitted. 

A sixth-grade student in Utah recorded her teacher stating that only one point of view on the assignment was permitted.  (iStock)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP  

In a statement, the district said, "On the questions about extra credit: Yes, the teacher said sure you can have bonus points, almost as an afterthought. There are multiple opportunities for extra credit or bonus points in this class." "[W]hen the teacher realized there was concern, the student was offered another topic of the student’s choice. Remember this particular assignment is about finding facts versus opinions to support writing an argumentative essay," the spokesperson continued. "Our district, schools, and teachers do encourage parents and students to come to us with their concerns. We want to continue to be partners in the education of children."

Hannah Grossman is an Associate Editor at Fox News Digital.

Fox News First

Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox

You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!

options for assignment

Follow Black Heart Gold Pants online:

Site search

Filed under:

Iowa Wrestling: NCAA Tournament HTW Guide & Thread for Day ONE- Sessions I & II

Spencer Lee’s quest for #4 begins here.

Share this story

Share All sharing options for: Iowa Wrestling: NCAA Tournament HTW Guide & Thread for Day ONE- Sessions I & II

NCAA Wrestling: Big Ten Championship

This morning we officially kick of the 2023 NCAA wrestling tournament and what a dozy it’ll be! We’re sending all 10 wrestlers to the tournament including two top seeds: Spencer Lee (125) and Real Woods (141).

Our Hawkeyes are going to be in a dogfight from the onset. We’re going to be pushed early and if we can survive day one we’re going to set ourselves up nicely for some quarterfinal action on Friday.

Penn State is the betting favorite to win it, but no one is counting Iowa out just yet. However, we will need some help from other teams as well as winning these early round matches to give ourselves a shot. As it stands with the projected points we’re sitting firmly in 2nd place with Nebraska and Missouri nipping at heels.

If you’re looking for the official brackets you can found those HERE .

Likewise if you want to follow along with mat assignments, scores, and other general tournament information that is located HERE .

First Round Matches:

125: #1 Spencer Lee vs #33 Tucker Owens (Air Force) or #32 Tanner Jordan (SDSU)

133: #23 Brody Teske vs #10 Lucas Byrd (Illinois)

141: #1 Real Woods vs #33 Josh Mason (Bloomington) or #32 Kal Miller (MD)

149: #8 Max Murin vs #25 Caleb Tyus (Southern Illinois-Edwardsville)

157: #14 Cobe Siebrecht vs #19 Garrett Model (Wisconsin)

165: #6 Patrick Kennedy vs #27 Will Formato (Appalachian St).

174: #11 Nelson Brands vs #22 Alex Falson (North Carolina State)

184: #12 Abe Assad vs #21 Giuseppe Hoose (Buffalo)

197: #14 Jacob Warner vs #19 Cameron Caffey (Michigan State)

285: #4 Tony Cassioppi vs #29 Jaron Smith (Maryland)

Broadcast Info

Session times:

Session I - 11AM God’s Time (Central) // Thursday, March 16th, 2023

Session II - 6PM God’s Time (Central) // Thursday, March 16th, 2023

TV: Session I is available on ESPNU, Session II will be on ESPN

Streaming: Individual mats for all sessions are available on ESPN3

Radio: iHeartRadio (AM800 KXIC)

Location: BOK Center // Tulsa, OK

Mat Tracking: Trackwrestling

We have a restoration crew coming to the house tomorrow so I’ll do my best to keep everyone updated. If you see me falling behind then anyone, everyone, whoever, please jump in! This is NCAA tournament time, no toe is safe.

More From Black Heart Gold Pants

Loading comments...

IMAGES

  1. Options Assignment & How To Avoid It

    options for assignment

  2. Options Assignment 2

    options for assignment

  3. Will I Be Assigned?

    options for assignment

  4. Options Assignment Explained

    options for assignment

  5. Options Assignment Help and Homework Help

    options for assignment

  6. Options Assignment & How To Avoid It

    options for assignment

VIDEO

  1. Choose the correct option

  2. Choose the correct option

  3. Choose the correct option

  4. BASICS of OPTIONS

  5. Choose the correct option

  6. Choose the correct option

COMMENTS

  1. What Is an Option Assignment?

    An assignment represents the seller of an option's obligation to fulfill the terms of the contract by either selling or purchasing the underlying security at the exercise price. If you sell an option and get assigned, you have to fulfill the transaction outlined in the option. You can only get assigned if you sell options, not if you buy them.

  2. Trading Options: Understanding Assignment

    An option assignment represents the seller's obligation to fulfill the terms of the contract by either selling or buying the underlying security at the exercise price. This obligation is triggered when the buyer of an option contract exercises their right to buy or sell the underlying security.

  3. Options Assignment & How To Avoid It

    The assignment process is the selection of the other party of this transaction. So the person that has to buy from or sell to the option buyer that exercised their option. Note that an option buyer has the right to exercise their option. It is not an obligation and therefore, a buyer of an option can never be assigned.

  4. Options Assignment

    Once you sell an American-style option (put or call), you have the potential for assignment to fulfill your obligation to receive (and pay for) or deliver (and are paid for) shares of stock on any business day. In some circumstances, you may be assigned on a short option position while the underlying shares are halted for trading, or perhaps ...

  5. Options Basics: How the Option Assignment Process Works

    Simply defined, the assignment of an option refers to the fulfillment of the options contract by the seller. An option holder has the right to buy or sell the underlying equity at the given...

  6. Option Assignment Process: Everything You Need to Know

    The option assignment process means that the option writer is obligated to deliver on the terms specified in a contract. For example, if a put option is assigned, the options writer would need to buy the underlying security at the strike price dictated in the contract.

  7. Understanding Options Assignment: What It Means and How to Respond

    Assignment — What happens to shares of an option contract. As an option seller, you can be assigned 100 long shares of stock per put option contract and 100 short shares of stock per call option. Call Option — Gives the owner the right to call (buy) shares from the option seller.

  8. Local Assignment Options

    These options, known as Local Assignment Options (LAOs), allow flexibility at the local level and are used solely at the discretion of the LEA. The LEA is responsible for verification of all LAO requirements and should always review the language of the EC or T5. The information provided is designed to serve as guidance only.

  9. Options Assignment

    Assignment Risk: Buying An Option When you buy an option (a call or a put), you cannot be assigned stock unless you choose to exercise your option. Plain and simple, the purchaser of an option contract will always have the choice to exercise the option, but not the obligation to do so.

  10. Prompt Options for Paper Assignment

    Prompt Options for Paper Assignment PSY 3450 Spring 2023 Prof. Chen. Students should select one prompt for their paper assignment. There are two paper deadlines, March 3 and April 21. Students may turn in their paper (any prompt) at either deadline. Prof. Chen also has an optional pre-grade option.

  11. What is Designated for Assignment (DFA) Mean in Baseball?

    Baseball Club Options with Players Designated for Assignment. Once a player is DFA'd, the clock starts for the club to pick an option for that player's immediate future. Those options are: Assign the player to one of a minor league team affiliated with the club. (This is not available for all players; see Common Questions at bottom).

  12. Option Assignment: What It Is, How to Avoid It, and Examples

    Options assignment is a must-know concept for anyone trading options, especially those selling them. It's the process by which an option seller can be held to their contract terms — and it has risks. We'll go over what you need to know about the mechanics of assignment, why it occurs, and your exposure when selling options.

  13. Create an assignment

    Note: If you change an assignment's name, the assignment's Drive folder name isn't updated. Go to Drive and rename the folder. Edit a posted assignment. On the Classwork page, next to the assignment, click More Edit. Enter your changes and click Save. Edit a scheduled assignment. On the Classwork page, next to the assignment, click More Edit.

  14. Two options for assignments

    Supposing both options are Assignments (and not one option is a quiz and the other is an assignment), and both assignments would use the same rubric and are worth the same points and have the same due date (basically, if it's just that the prompt is different), what I do is post both options in the assignment prompt area. ...

  15. Options Assignment Explained

    Options Assignment Explained. Learn what an options assignment is and what it means when an options seller gets assigned. OCC 125 South Franklin Street, Suite 1200 | Chicago, IL 60606. This web site discusses exchange-traded options issued by The Options Clearing Corporation. No statement in this web site is to be construed as a recommendation ...

  16. Assignment Risk Explained

    Assignment Risk Explained. Mar 15, 2023. Assignment risk is real, but assignment is rare. The crew breaks down how your risk profile doesn't necessarily change for trades that still have time to expiration, and how your profit profile can actually improve after being assigned. Tune in to learn more with a live Q&A session and ADBE earnings preview!

  17. Options Assignment

    Options Assignment What is an Options Assignment? In options trading, an assignment occurs when an option is exercised. As we know, a buyer of an option has the right but not the obligation to buy or sell an underlying asset depending on what option they have purchased.

  18. Option Exercise and Assignment Explained w/ Visuals

    As you can see, exercise and assignment is pretty straightforward: when an option buyer exercises their option, they purchase (calls) or sell (puts) 100 shares of stock at the strike price. A trader who is short the assigned option is obligated to fulfill the opposite position as the option exerciser. Automatic Exercise at Expiration

  19. Solved Assignment Click for more options In chapter 9, you

    See Answer. Question: Assignment Click for more options In chapter 9, you learned about many different theories for why employees are motivated to perform well. Even though none of the theories has been completely supported, each has something to offer. For this weeks assignment in an APA formatted Word Document, address the following: Based on ...

  20. Exercise & Assignment Guide

    The two approved methods for assignment are random or first-in, first-out. Risk of assignment Equity options sellers are at risk of assignment at any time. However, it is usually in the option buyer's best interest not to exercise an options contract early, but there are circumstances that increase the risk of assignment.

  21. Options Assignment Process

    Option assignment is the fulfillment of the contractual obligation of a contract's terms. This video helps you understand the options assignment process and how it impacts you as a trader. A more advanced tutorial on the exact process that happens behind the scenes when an option contract gets assigned. From the exercise request to your ...

  22. Option Assignment and Exercise for spread : r/interactivebrokers

    Option Assignment and Exercise for spread. I have purchased the following pair of option spread due to expire on Mar 17. On expiry date, the TSLA is at, say 180, which means that I am going to be assigned the short leg. As I am in Hong Kong with a different time zone and I will only be aware of the assignment after the end of Mar 17 trading day.

  23. Re: Two options for assignments

    Hi Leland Krum, There are lots of ways to do the student choice assignment including: Mastery paths as mentioned by Kristin Involves setup by the instructor before assignment submission EX in the un-chosen assignment mentioned by Chris Involves intervention by the instructor after submission Pot...

  24. What Is Options Assignment Fee? What Is Options Exercise Fee?

    When the options contract is ordered by the clearing house to purchase or sell the underlying stock from the option holder, this is called assignment. In both cases, some brokers will charge fees. Nowadays, however, not all that many brokers still charge assignments and exercise fees.

  25. "Sexual fantasy" school assignment in Oregon sparks parent backlash

    She said: "This assignment is an unauthorized, out-of-context adaptation of a facilitated group activity in Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education for Grades 10-12, 1st ed., which is out of print."

  26. Utah school gives kids 'disgusting' insects to eat in class for climate

    A middle school in Utah's Nebo School District gave sixth-grade students "disgusting" insects to eat last week as part of an English assignment on climate change, claiming it would save the ...

  27. Iowa Wrestling: NCAA Tournament HTW Guide & Thread for Day ONE

    Likewise if you want to follow along with mat assignments, scores, and other general tournament information that is located HERE. First Round Matches: 125: #1 Spencer Lee vs #33 Tucker Owens (Air ...