Can Anyone Please Help Me with option expiration??

[Treve]

I have a huge problem with my stock options bought through interactive brokers. I invested a lot of money in several stock options and I made some profit. The expiration day was on Friday 16 and I didn't decide to exercise the options. I was told that if I don’t exercise them, the options will result in stocks. However, I checked my account today on Saturday and it shows all my options lost 100%. I am very much worried as I invested really big money, would someone tell me if I really lost all my money? Did I have to sell all the options on the expiration day? Any help on this will be much appreciated!!!
Thank you!!!

 

[Martinghoul]

Call IB and find out what happened...

The fact that the value of your options went to 0 is normal. This is what automatically happens when options expire, regardless of whether they get exercised or not. The expiration trade for a long in-the-money call/put option position is, effectively, a sell of the options at 0 and a buy/sell of the underlying at the strike price.

 

[Treve]

Thanks Martinghoul!! Sure I will give them a call, but I have to wait until Monday, and since a lot of money has been invested I can’t sleep. Any other thoughts on this??

 

[Martinghoul]

Well, if the options did in fact expire in the money, I think it's very unlikely that a reputable broker like IB would do something dodgy, such as not exercising them, without at least advising you of the fact. However, you need to talk to them, as they are the only people that can tell you what's going on. Have they tried contacting you? Is it possible they called to ask you to post margin or something?

 

[Treve]

I had 15 stock options and 9 expired in the money. IB never contacted me regarding this. My only hope is that because of the weekend they didn’t exercise them yet, but resulting stock position will be in the account Monday morning. It will be a very long weekend for me;(( Thanks!

 

[GammaJammer]

Presumably these were exchange traded options? If so, find out what exchange and take a look at the exchange rules. OTC options (such as those traded in FX) are different, as the onus is far more on the individual to exercise an option (unless it's way in the money in which case a bank will not risk the reputational damage of not honouring it, but it, like so many other things in FX, is a huge grey area.

But my understanding (and I could be wrong but doubt it) is that stock options have rules for this stuff. Either cash settled or equity settled (more likely the latter) but there's a formula and a process and it gets followed.

 

[Jack o'Clubs]

Have you checked in your account whether they've credited you with the stock?

 

[GammaJammer]

also, potentially dumb question, but they were CALL options right? not puts?

Just checking...

If, as you say, you invested 'a lot of money' it does beg the question why you're doing so in such size if you don't understand the mechanics of the market in which you're investing. That's definitely a lesson you need to take on board.....

 

[Martinghoul]

He got the shares... All is well.