Sometimes I think about doing lottos (both SPX and company specific)..so does IBKR auto sell your 0d stuff at 3:30pm ET? thx
i think only if you cannot cover the margin of the resulting position. I traded ES 0DTE before and had no problem holding to 4:00 and getting assigned ES Futures. ES 0DTE are auto exercised directly after 4pm without the option to lapse
Only if they see that you won't have enough $$ to cover your margins or options assignment obligations for your short options or auto-exercise possibility for your long option positions And before they force liquidate you, they do give you notices to give you a chance to cover. The thing is though I can understand their concern about me not able to meet the option assignment obligations me or not having enough $$ to buy in auto-exercise of long options but the maintenance margin, that sometimes is manipulated by IB. They can suddenly increase their margin requirement on a security that when you entered the position, you were perfectly fine on the margin requirement and then all of sudden you are not. They do this very often on volatility-related instruments. I was even forced to liquidate a position that was profitable; it was making money and I had to close my position which basically cut my profit short because they all of sudden changed the margin requirement claiming that the security is riskier when nothing has changed, either in the instrument or the market.
Note that since the SPX is cash settled, you don't have to worry about assignment. So, you don't have to worry about them liquidating an expiring position early.
They may still liquidate you early if your short option is naked and they see that you may not have enough money to cover the cash settlement.