// Options
How to Close, Expire, Assign, Exercise, or Roll an Option
Every option position ends exactly one way, and each ending is its own action with its own record. Here is the click path for all five, what each one writes, and why an action is sometimes missing from the menu.
An option position ends exactly one way, and your broker has already decided which. Your job is to record the ending that happened — each one is a separate action, writes a different record, and produces different numbers downstream.
// 01 · the map
The five ways an option ends
Every terminated contract carries one status, and the status is what every P&L surface reads. Recording the wrong one doesn’t just mislabel the row — it sends the premium to the wrong place.
| Ending | What happened | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Closed | You bought or sold the contract back before expiry. | Sell to Close / Buy to Close |
| Expired | The contract reached expiry worthless and was never exercised. | Mark as Expired |
| Assigned | A short option finished in the money and shares changed hands. | Mark as Assigned / Mark as Called Away |
| Exercised | You exercised a long option and took delivery. | Exercise |
| Rolled | You closed the contract and opened a later one in one move. | Roll |
A multi-leg position can finish with its legs on different endings — one leg assigned, the rest worthless. That case has its own screen; see settling a spread or condor at expiration.
// 02 · closing
How to close a contract
Closing is the ordinary exit: you trade out of the contract before expiry. The action is named for your direction — a long position closes by selling, a short position closes by buying it back.
Open the row menu
Go to Option Trades, find the open contract, and click ⋯ at the end of the row (right-clicking the row opens the same menu).On a short put. A long position reads Sell to Close, and a short call reads Mark as Called Away. Choose the close action
Pick Sell to Close on a long position or Buy to Close on a short one. Both open the same dialog.Enter the price and, if partial, the quantity
The contracts field defaults to the whole position. Lower it to close only part — the closed portion becomes its own completed trade with its own result, and the remainder stays open on the tracker.
| What it writes | Detail |
|---|---|
| Status | closed |
| Quantity | A partial close splits the trade — the row shows how many contracts remain open. |
| Commission | Pre-filled from your default per-contract fee, scaled to the contracts you're closing, and editable. |
// 03 · expiry
How to mark an option as expired
Use this when the contract ran to expiry and finished worthless. It is the one ending that asks you for nothing.
- On the row, open ⋯ and choose Mark as Expired.
- That’s it — there is no dialog. The trade is marked expired immediately and a toast offers an Undo.
If the contract hasn’t reached its expiration date yet, the action is refused rather than performed — see when the action isn’t there.
// 04 · delivery
How to record an assignment or a called-away position
A short option that finishes in the money delivers shares. A short put means you buy the shares; a short call means your shares are sold. The menu names whichever applies, so you never have to translate.
Open the row menu on the short contract
Mark as Assigned appears on a short put; Mark as Called Away on a short call.Enter the assignment price
This is the per-share delivery price — normally the strike, which is what the field is pre-filled with. Where the underlying was actually trading is a different number, kept out of the way under Underlying at Close.Confirm which shares are involved
On a called-away call, pick the lot the shares come from. On an assigned put, the shares are created as a new lot for you.
| What it writes | Detail |
|---|---|
| Option status | assigned |
| Stock side | A share lot is created or disposed of, tagged Assigned or Called away so it never reads as a plain buy or sell. |
| Wheel cycle | The cycle advances, and the premium collected across the whole roll chain credits the effective basis — not just this leg's. |
For what assignment does to your cost basis over a full wheel, see the wheel strategy cost-basis guide.
// 05 · long side
How to exercise a long option
Exercise is the mirror of assignment, on the side you control: you hold a long contract and choose to take delivery rather than sell it back.
- On the long contract’s row, open ⋯ and choose Exercise.
- Enter the exercise date and the per-share price at which you take or deliver the shares.
Like assignment, an exercise cannot be dated after the contract expired — the picker caps it, the form rejects a typed date past it, and the server checks it again on save. The resulting share lot is tagged Exercised in the stock tables.
// 06 · rolling
How to roll to a new contract
A roll is one move that closes the current contract and opens a later one. Recording it as a roll — rather than as a close plus a fresh trade — is what lets the app carry the premium chain forward.
- On the open contract’s row, open ⋯ and choose Roll.
Fill both halves
The dialog is numbered because it really is two trades: the closing price for the old contract, then the new strike, expiration, and premium for the replacement. Commission pre-fills on both, since a roll is charged twice.
The old contract is marked rolled and the new one opens linked to it, so the chain stays readable as one position. The net of the two legs — not the new contract’s premium — is what the roll was actually worth, which is where most broker screens mislead. The full roll-tracking guide works through that math.
// 07 · corrections
How to fix an ending you recorded wrong
You don’t need to delete the trade. Two of the endings can be swapped in place, and any of them can be reopened.
| Current status | Available correction |
|---|---|
| Expired | Change to Closed or Reopen Trade |
| Closed | Change to Expired or Reopen Trade |
| Assigned, exercised, or rolled | Not reclassifiable in place — see below. |
Neither swap is silent, and they ask for opposite things. Change to Closed opens the close dialog, because an expired trade has no close price and one is now needed. Change to Expired opens a confirmation, because the close price and commission you recorded are about to be removed from P&L — and it is refused outright, with the same explanation as Mark as Expired, on a contract that hasn’t reached its expiration date.
Reopen Trade asks nothing: it is the safe direction, and is itself the undo for the other two.
// 08 · the gates
When the action isn't there
Most “I can’t find the button” moments are one of these four rules. None of them are bugs.
The option hasn’t expired yet
Mark as Expired is always offered, but on a contract that hasn’t reached its expiration date it is refused with an explanation rather than performed. An option can only expire on or after its expiration date — every earlier ending has its own status. If the expiration date on the trade is simply wrong, the same dialog has an Edit Trade button that takes you straight to fixing it.
It’s a cash-settled index option
Index roots such as SPX and SPXW settle in cash and never deliver shares, so Mark as Assigned, Mark as Called Away, and Exercise are hidden on those contracts. Sell to Close / Buy to Close, Mark as Expired, and Roll all stay available.
The position has more than one leg
Group only appears on a single-leg position — it exists to fold separate entries together, so it retires once the position already has more than one leg. (Add Leg is different: on a multi-leg position it moves to the position’s own summary row rather than disappearing.) Mark as Assigned and Exercise are deliberately not restricted that way: each contract settles on its own, so one leg of a condor can finish assigned while the others expire worthless, and that leg has to be recordable where it sits.
The trade is already closed
The ending actions only appear on open contracts. A terminated trade shows the correction actions instead — see fixing an ending you recorded wrong.