Placing an options trade
Options can be traded in the same way as stocks, by entering the quantity and price and then placing a trade.
Select Buy to buy the option and Sell to sell it short. If you already have a long or short position in an option, you can also close your position before the ex-date. Please note we only support long side trading right now.
Availabe option order type
Currently we only support limit orders for US options trading
Minimum trading unit
The contract multiplier in general is 100, meaning 100 underlying shares are to be exercised in an option contract.
When can I trade options?
US options trading hours are typically the same as regular US stock market hours (9:30AM-4:00PM EST). Please note that options cannot be traded during after-hours.
What is a premium?
Premium is the amount paid by the buyer of an option to the seller. The premium is tied to the value of the underlying securities of the contract, so the stock's price, volatility, and time left until expiration all influence an option's premium.
How options are exercised?
Most of the exercise actions are automatically carried out based on the closing settlement price on the expiration date. If you, as the right party, have the need to exercise the option early or give up the exercise.
As the owner of the option, if the option is out-of-the-money on the expiry date, the expired value will be reset to zero, and the option will not be exercised; if the in-the-money value of the option is equal to or higher than $0.01, the option will be automatically exercised. The exercise will be completed by physical delivery.
As an obligatory party to an option, when the option is exercised, the options clearing house will match the open short position with the exercised option in a random fashion. When your account is designated for allocation, you must deliver the underlying stock (if you are the call option seller) or purchase the underlying stock (if you are the put option seller).
Generally, in-the-money options are exercised at expiration. If you hold a short in-the-money option on the expiration date, you need to accept the assignment. In actual trading, since the buyer has the right to decide whether to exercise the option, he may also choose to give up the option or exercise the option in advance (whether in-the-money or out-of-the-money) due to his own trading strategy considerations. At this time, the short option holder Otherwise, it may not be assigned (the buyer gives up the exercise), or be assigned out of the price (the buyer takes the initiative to exercise the option).
How to exercise or waive exercise in advance?
Under normal circumstances, the income from early exercise is less than the income from liquidation. It is usually not cost-effective to exercise the option early, because the time value of the option will be discarded, so we recommend that the liquidation option be preferred. However, when the option is deeply in-the-money, there will only be very little time value remaining, and usually the liquidity is poor, and it may not be possible to close the position at a reasonable price, so investors will choose to exercise the option early. Another reason for investors to exercise is to exercise the relevant call option before the ex-dividend date when the investor wants to obtain the dividend of the underlying stock. Please contact customer service: (+852) 36158549