When will I know if my covered call has been exercised on an option I sold 2 weeks ago? ?

Question

A couple of weeks ago I sold an option that was set to expire this month. It's currently In-The-Money. It has not been called or exercised yet.. and the last day to trade the option was yesterday. Today the option expires... How will I know if it truly has expired? Maybe it got exercised, and I wont know til Monday if my 100 shares were assigned? Help me out. I don't know. I picked up a nice premium... and made money on the stock going up... so it's not like I'm scared. Just a little confused?

Answer 1

You'll know before the open on Monday.  If it was ITM then you should know that the options exchange will automatically exercise it.  The only way an option owner wouldn't get exercised on an ITM option is if they picked up the phone and asked that it not be exercised.  This only happens if the stock closes just barely ITM and moves OTM in the after hours trade on Friday.

How much was it in the money?  If it was firmly in the money then you'll be assigned.

Answer 2

Technically it is possible that the option expired, but for all practical purposes you can be sure it was exercised and you were assigned.

I have been told by an options professional (but cannot independently confirm) that the only legal requirement is that the trade be recorded in your account before trading opens at 9:30 Eastern Monday morning.

From other discussions on the subject I do know that different brokerages update accounts at different times. It appears the majority will update your account by noon Sunday.

As long as the options still show up as part of your portfolio you know the account has not been updated yet. (No matter what happened to the option, it no longer exists.)