Explain why it is possible for an options contract to disappear without expiring or being exercised?

Question

is it even possible??

Answer 1

It is not possible.

What is possible is a contract adjustment. For example, some Nokia options were renamed recently. See

http://www.optionsclearing.com/market/in...

for details. Someone looking up the old symbol might think that it had just disappeared.

Addendum

I see since I originally posted an answer Ranto posted a conflicting answer because he read the question differently than I did.  I read the question as asking how an entire option symbol can disappear. He read the question as asking how an individual contract can be closed so that it no longer exists, even though other contracts may still exist with the same symbol.

I am not sure which way you intended to have the question interpretted, but you now have correct answers for both interpretations.

Answer 2

If the person who bought it sold it back to the seller prior to expiration, it would disappear.