If you put up the ESH9 on the TWS, it will show the SOQ. For instance, for March09, the SOQ was 788.00. Your March C785 call is ITM by three points. $150.00 (no commish) will be deducted from your cash balance immediately (or within an hour or so), and your margin for that trade will be release so that you can place more trades the same day. Again, it is better to close this trade out before Thursday's close. Since the C785 was still OTM around the close, you probably would have paid about 3-4 points to get out. but the extra money is worth it. Anything can happen between Thursday's close and Friday's open.
The ESH9 SOQ was not 788.00. The correct SOQ is 789.40. Please refer to the CME settlements for 03/20/09 at http://www.cmegroup.com/daily_bulletin/Section11_Equity_And_Index_Futures_2009054.pdf
I got this announcement after logging onto IB sunday, it seems everything is done now. I checked to make sure i am not short any es futures contracts due to assignment, and i am not. So looks like everything is cash settled. ------------------------ Thanks guys for your help on this. I am going to summarize the es mini sp500 options assignment process below for future reference or anyone who happens to see this thread later. 1) - For Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec expired options, it stops trading on the 3rd friday at 9:30AM EST - For all other months, it stops trading on the 3rd friday at 4:15PM EST http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/us-index/e-mini-sandp500_contractSpecs_options.html 2) The final price is determined by something called SOQ (special opening quotation). This number is published usually a few hours after the options stops trading. The symbol is SET, you can find it by going to below link and look for S&P 500 (SET) http://www.cboe.com/data/Settlement.aspx You can read about the method used to determine the SOQ in this link(but honestly who cares): http://www.clearing21.com/trading/prd/equity/settlement.html 3) If your options contract is ITM as per the SOQ and the option's strike, it will be cash settled, meaning you pay/gain the difference between the strike and SOQ. 4) You will be notified of the settlement from your broker. For example IB, notified me with the above announcement at midnight sunday. ----------------------------------- Question, for a non quarterly options. For example if i sold a feb itm call option, whose underlying is the march futures. Is assignment still cash settled, or will i actually get the march futures contracts in my account during the feb expiration.
You are correct. It was close. I use it as a guide, for my statement doesn't get read until Monday, and I like to close out the expiring month over the week, and get ready for the next period.