Is there tail risk owning worthless options

Discussion in 'Options' started by optionsgambler, Mar 20, 2022.

  1. I realized people can move an illiquid closing auction to force a bad options to be exercised.

    Saw this Shopify close, idk if its legit, but if you randomly had 100 775 calls & they got exercised, you'd be down 700k (Assuming you get out at 710).

    I often have worthless weird large option positions sitting in my portfolio like this. How big of a liability is this? Should I close them out for $0.00 if I can? Had some options accidentally get exercised the other day, got short in my roth ira and was surprised. It did not cost me any money but got me thinking about some other positions I had
     
  2. I'm not an expert, but it seems like it's worth whatever the commission is to close worthless options before expiry for the peace of mind.
     
  3. newwurldmn

    newwurldmn

    you can always not exercise an option if you are long. So you have no risk
     
  4. 2rosy

    2rosy

    When I short options I put in a gtc closing order for a nickel to avoid this
     
    nooby_mcnoob likes this.
  5. GotherL

    GotherL

    It was marking the close in AH.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2022
  6. smallfil

    smallfil

    If I have any open losing options positions expiring, I will close it out just to make sure even for $0.05. If it is way out of the monies that there are no transactions, I let it expire worthless.
     
    vivaskyliska likes this.
  7. ET180

    ET180

    Long or short the 775 calls? If short, then yes, that is a risk. If long, they will get auto-exercised if the underlying is above 775 by at least a penny. In that case though, those calls would have been worth probably at least 0.2 or 0.3 each a minute before the close...could have sold them all and made $2-3k...otherwise, if it spiked higher only during the last few seconds, just instruct your broker not to exercise them. If you don't have the margin necessary to take the underlying, they won't exercise them anyway.
     
  8. GotherL

    GotherL

    How is anyone not paying attention to the fact it shot up to 780 in AH.

    The 775 calls would've expired worthless already at 4 pm.

    Correct me if I am wrong?
     
  9. qwerty11

    qwerty11

    no
     
  10. GotherL

    GotherL

    So you're saying options can exercise during AH action>?

    That seems like a huge scam.

    Someone can just manipulate the price higher and drop it back immediately like they did with $SHOP and your instantly down 10% on commons.
     
    #10     Mar 20, 2022