I had 120 SPY 195/196 bear call spreads this past week. They expired worthless yesterday. But optionshouse closed the short 195 calls at .01 each, thereby robbing me of $120. I have been trading credit spreads with TDAMeritrade for 3 years and have NEVER had an option expiring worthless closed by the broker. I can't get to customer service before Monday, but I am hoping this is a glitch. Has anyone else experienced this? And before anyone talks about having enough funds, I had plenty. I only use 25% of my account each week, so I have close to $50,000 and the margin for the trade was $12,000
OptionsHouse explained everything this morning, and my confusion was based on SPY being physically settled, meaning I would have all those shares of the ETF if it went ITM after trading and before expiration, which is really 1 1/2 hours after close. Whereas if it was SPX which is cash settled, it wouldn't be an issue. So far my experience with OptionsHouse has been very good. I'm sure happy with the commission rate.