// Options
How to Settle a Spread or Condor at Expiration
When a multi-leg position expires with its legs on different fates — one assigned, the rest worthless — neither Close nor Mark as Expired is right. Settle at Expiration takes one settlement price and proposes an outcome per leg.
A spread expires as a set of separate contracts, and the clearing house settles each one on its own. That is why a breached condor finishes with one leg assigned sitting beside three worthless ones — and why it needs an action that can record both outcomes at once.
// 01 · the problem
Why settlement is its own action
At expiry, each contract in a spread is settled independently. If the underlying finishes between your strikes, some legs are in the money and some aren’t — so no single outcome describes the position.
| Action | What it assumes | Why it's wrong here |
|---|---|---|
| Close Position | Every leg was traded out at a price. | Legs that expired worthless were never traded out at all. |
| Mark as Expired | Every leg finished worthless. | Books the in-the-money leg at nothing, losing the assignment. |
| Settle at Expiration… | Legs may differ. | Correct — one price in, an outcome per leg out. |
// 02 · building
Group legs into one position
If you entered the legs separately, fold them together first so the position settles as a unit.
- On one of the legs, open the ⋯ menu and choose Group.
Pick the sibling legs
The dialog lists the other positions on that ticker that can be folded in. Select the ones belonging to this spread and confirm.
Grouped the wrong rows? The position menu has Ungroup Legs, which puts them back as they were.
// 03 · building
Add a leg to a position
Add Leg goes the other way: it opens a new contract already attached to an existing position, which is how you turn a single short put into a spread without entering and then grouping.
It is offered in two places, and they are not the same menu. On a single leg’s own row it appears while that trade is open and the position still has one leg. On a multi-leg position’s summary row it is always there until the position closes — so a spread can be widened into a condor without ungrouping anything first.
// 04 · the screen
Settle at expiration
Open the position menu
On the position’s summary row — the one carrying the strategy name, not an individual leg — open ⋯ and choose Settle at Expiration….A position’s menu, not a leg’s. Note Add Leg sitting here — that is how a spread becomes a condor. Enter the settlement price
One price for the underlying. Each leg is then proposed as assigned (short and in the money), exercised (long and in the money), or expired worthless — using the clearing-house convention that in the money means by 0.01 or more.Adjust any row that's wrong
The proposal is a starting point, not a verdict. Change any leg’s outcome directly, and set a per-leg price where one is needed — that price applies only to assigned and exercised legs.Say which shares a short call delivers
If a short call is set to assigned and isn’t linked to a holding, you’re asked which lot the shares come from. Leaving it unlinked records the assignment as uncovered rather than silently picking a lot.Commit
All legs are saved in one atomic call, so the position can never be left half-settled.
// 05 · calendars
When only the front leg has expired
A calendar or diagonal spread has legs on different expirations, so the front leg reaches expiry months before the back one.
Choosing Mark as Expired on that position asks you to confirm first — because you asked to expire the whole position and are about to get something narrower. Confirming books the legs that have reached expiry and leaves the rest running, so the position sits partially settled until the back leg finishes.
// 06 · the gates
When the action isn't there
Group isn’t on my trade
Group exists to fold separate entries into one position, so it retires once the position already has more than one leg. The count is by structural leg, not by row: a partially closed position splits into similar-looking sibling rows, and those still count as one leg, so the action stays.
It is also hidden on any trade that is part of a roll chain — one that was rolled from an earlier contract or has been rolled into a later one. Those rows are already threaded to a neighbour, and grouping them would give one trade two different notions of what it belongs to.
Add Leg isn’t on my trade
On an individual leg’s row it needs the trade to be open and the position to still be single-leg. If the position already has several legs, use the position’s summary row instead — Add Leg sits there for any position that isn’t closed.
Can I assign just one leg of a spread?
Yes — and this is deliberately not gated the way Group is. Each contract settles on its own, so a breached condor finishes with one leg assigned beside three worthless ones, and that leg has to be recordable in place. Use Mark as Assigned on the leg itself, or settle the whole position at once.
I settled it the wrong way
A closed or settled position has Reopen Position on its menu. It reopens the legs that were closed or expired; a leg that was assigned or exercised has already moved shares and isn’t undone that way — when only those remain, the action says Nothing to reopen rather than doing something partial.
Settle at Expiration is refused
The same rule that governs expiry applies: nothing can be settled before it has reached its expiration date — and for a position, the date that counts is the earliest open leg’s. See the expiry rule on the option-endings guide.