The "daily Call" From Option Alpha: Options Trading | Stock Options | Stock Trading | Trading Online

Hey everyone. This is Kirk here again from Option Alpha. Welcome back to the daily call. Today, we’re going to answer the question, “Can options be assigned before expiration?” There are two things we have to cover in this quick little podcast. The first, of course is the difference between American-style and European-style option contracts. Really quickly, American-style contracts are basically all of the contracts that we generally trade on a regular basis. Those would be your contracts for Apple or Google or Netflix. Many of the ETFs, practically all of the ETFs are American-style. And so, what that means is that those option contracts could potentially be assigned before expiration or you could choose to exercise your contract if you’re a long option buyer before expiration. The European-style option contracts which are more of the index style contracts, only assignment can happen or exercise can happen at expiration. That’s the difference. Again, most of the option contracts that you’d be trading on a re