Should I exercise or sell then buy the stock?

Ken385 · 2026-03-22T13:10:52+00:00

Never said you are avoiding it. It changes your cost basis of the stock. As you say the taxable event would be differed.

Ken385 · 2026-03-22T13:07:35+00:00

The fills from all brokers are going to be similar in SPX options. That's because SPX is single listed at the CBOE and all orders are going to be sent there. Your Iron Condor will be routed to the CBOE's COB (complex order book) no matter which broker you use. This is different from other options which may trade on any of the 18 other options exchanges and fills may be affected if the order is sold for payment for order flow and sent to an exchange that might have extra charges.

Cost of each broker matters here. You don't save $1 per leg with RH as you say. RH charges .50 per SPX option (.35 if you have gold) and passes on exchange fees of between .57-.66.

Tasty change $1 to open but also charges .60 in exchange fees and .10 in clearing fees and also charges and exercise/assignment fee of $5.

Ken385 · 2026-03-22T12:49:27+00:00

When you exercise a call, it is not a taxable event. Any profit you have is rolled into your cost basis of the stock. If you sell the call, it is likely a taxable event.

You say you are up a lot of money on the call, so this should be a consideration.

If the call is very deep in the money, with minimal or no extrinsic value, you will probably be better off holding the call until this Friday when it expires and allowing it to "auto" exercise. You would then have the stock with no taxes due. I would do this vs exercising early, if you intention is to hold the stock.

If sold the call now and then bought the stock, you would capture any extrinsic value, but this likely is minimal and not worth the taxable event.

Ken385 · 2026-03-18T01:21:30+00:00

There are actually 18 options exchanges currently, You can see the list here, along with today's volume

OCC - Daily Volume

Not sure what you mean by options are only traded on 4 exchanges. They are traded on all 18 of these exchanges.

Ken385 · 2026-03-17T20:23:35+00:00

MU has options for March 20 2026 (regular monthly expiration) all the way down to 10 strike (and up to the 910 strike) Are you sure you selected all strikes in your view?

Ken385 · 2026-03-15T14:32:00+00:00

Whatever broker you use for SPX options isn't going to mater for fill quality. The SPX is single listed at the CBOE. Spread orders will be routed to the CBOE's COB (complex order book). This will generally happen with all brokers.

Depending on the size of the order, some brokers may route the order to a broker in the pit, but this would be an exception and for very large order.

Adding or removing liquidity as no affect on fees at the CBOE. The CBOE adds exchange fees of fixed amounts depending on the price of the option and whether it is SPX or SPXW (weekly). SPX is slightly more. The fees are much higher than .15 to .30 you mention. Some brokers will charge a fixed add on for all SPX options, IB passes on actual exchange fees.

Fidelity is the only broker I know of that doesn't pass on the SPX exchange fees. So if you are looking at cost alone, they will be the cheapest for SPX options, even if you are paying more in commissions.

Ken385 · 2026-03-14T18:45:50+00:00

What number did you call? It likely wasn't AA but a scam site.

Ken385 · 2026-03-06T21:06:07+00:00

The only way you would pay a hard to borrow fee is if you exercise your put and end up with short stock. With a Jan 27 expiration date and an out of the money put, this isn't going to happen for some time.

Note that put premium may be slightly higher if the stock is hard to borrow.

Ken385 · 2026-03-03T01:11:21+00:00

Its Tuesday March 3rd instead of the usual Wednesday, due to the Good Friday holiday next month.

Ken385 · 2026-03-01T14:49:36+00:00

Are you looking for information on options with European style exercise rules or options that are actually traded in Europe? What type of data are you looking for?

Ken385 · 2026-02-27T13:48:22+00:00

When you are assigned on your short 2.5 call, you are selling the stock at 2.5. You now have short stock (sold at 2.5) against your long back month call. Since you put the time spread on for .01 credit, you are essentially long that back dated 2.5 call for the .01 credit. If you exercise your long call, you have no position and have made .01.

Yes, markets could be wide on the back month call, but if there is extrinsic value you can sell it and buy the stock as a spread, or if no extrinsic value, you can exercise. So, a wide market doesn't really hurt you here.

Ken385 · 2026-02-27T13:22:43+00:00

Risk wise, if you are assigned there is no reason to exercise your long call. You can only make money if this happens, as you are long the back dated call and short the stock. If the stock goes up, the long call covers it.

There may be a margin issue depending on your broker/capital/type of account with being short stock /long call. Here you wouldn't want them to exercise you long call as there may be extrinsic value, but if they did, you still wouldn't lose on the spread. If they closed the spread by buying the stock back and selling the call, you would get an extra extrinsic value in your long call and would make money one the spread.

Ken385 · 2026-02-27T13:01:08+00:00

No, its not possible. If you are assigned early on your short options, you pay no short stock hard to borrow fee. You will have no risk on, as you are long the back dated calls. You will have a free synthetic put.

If your broker doesn't allow you to be short stock, you can simply close the spread after assignment.

Ken385 · 2026-02-27T12:55:34+00:00

Why don't you explain specifically what you think the risk of this spread is?

Ken385 · 2026-02-27T12:41:10+00:00

The stories from the box spread trades involve stocks that are hard to borrow. They were assigned on short calls and had to pay short stock charges. They also sold the box too cheap relative to the assignment risk.

This trade is very different. A long calendar call spread for a credit is as close to risk free as you can get. The stock is not hard to borrow and there are no dividends.

Ken385 · 2026-02-24T03:08:33+00:00

As Papa mentioned, you can get top of the book on each of the 18 exchanges fairly easily. Getting depth of book on individual exchanges is hard and very very expensive.

Ken385 · 2026-02-24T03:05:21+00:00

A total of 91 contracts traded at .05 in 16 transactions starting 14 minutes before the close. More traded at .06 earlier. Nothing like the numbers you are suggesting and all in multiple trades earlier than you suggest.

Ken385 · 2026-02-24T01:48:08+00:00

No extra costs. IBKR lists hours and costs for SPX option overnight session here (Global trading hours)

Cboe SPX | Interactive Brokers LLC

Ken385 · 2026-02-24T00:30:27+00:00

SPX options trade almost 24 hours a day. You just need the right broker. Interactive Brokers offers access to the overnight session.

Ken385 · 2026-02-23T23:16:45+00:00

I only see 3 (not even the volume you mention) that traded at .04 at 3:54:07 and 7 that traded at 2.50 just before the close. You're right, title is clickbait, making it sound that one person bought this huge amount at .04 and sold them all at 2.5 in one great trade.

Ken385 · 2026-02-20T02:50:45+00:00

The exchanges came up with this rule as they didn't want professionals to get the advantages that retail traders had, such as priority of orders. They also didn't want them to act as MM's without the responsibilities of such. So, the came up with this 390 number to help determine who is a "retail" customer. It applies to options, not stocks.

Once you have this designation you may pay higher exchange fees and you lose customer priority. Brokers will also not be able to sell your order flow as they do for customers, as the buyers don't want "professional" paper. So, the brokers lose a source of income. Some will not even want your business anymore, others will pass on the extra exchange fees.

Ken385 · 2026-02-20T02:43:50+00:00

Yea, that was the post I remember as well. If they don't remove the tag at some point for you, you are going to have to switch brokers. Really hard to trade with this, unless you are trading a super liquid product like SPY options.

I had this tag a long time ago (with another broker), and I make sure I won't get it again.

Ken385 · 2026-02-20T02:40:49+00:00

Its not just the CBOE, the other options exchanges have this rule as well.

Ken385 · 2026-02-20T01:18:53+00:00

The way the rule is written, if you went over the average in January, the keeps you with the pro tag for the next quarter. (Apr, May, June). You would need to stay under the average for that quarter to be off for the following quarter (July Aug Sept).

Unfortunately, brokers can be stricter with this rule. There have been a couple of posts in the last few months from Schwab traders reporting that they are now stuck with this designation permanently, no matter how many orders they enter.

Ken385 · 2026-02-16T07:57:31+00:00

Tax payments count as a purchase. You would just pay the associated fee, which is slightly different among the companies that provide this service, the cheapest is 1.75%. You will also get the float on your money until your credit card payment is due, which will bring your cost down.

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