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When does your broker tell you you've been assigned?

You'll usually find out the morning after. Exercise notices are matched overnight by the clearing house, passed to brokers, and show up in your account and inbox before the next session opens. Here's the timeline and what the message looks like.

Options guide · 7-minute read · Updated 2026-10-26

The short answer

Assignment is processed overnight. For a Friday expiry, that means:

• Friday, 4 pm ET: the close sets which options are in the money.
• Friday evening: buyers' instructions reach the clearing house by its 5:30 pm deadline. Automatic exercises are generated.
• Overnight: the clearing house assigns notices to brokers. Brokers assign them to customers.
• Saturday morning: most brokers send an email or app notice. The shares (or the cash) show in your account.
• Monday open: you can trade the new position.

Early assignment, on a weekday before expiry, follows the same overnight rhythm. You find out the next morning, before the market opens.

Nobody phones you. Nobody asks you. The notice is the first and only step.

What the message looks like

Every broker words it differently, so this is a shape, not a quote. A typical notice has:

• The word "assigned" or "assignment" in the subject or the first line.
• The contract: ticker, expiry, strike, put or call. Something like XYZ Oct 17 2026 45 Put.
• The quantity: how many contracts were assigned. Often all of them, sometimes fewer. See partial assignment.
• The share trade it created: bought 100 XYZ at $45.00 for a put, sold 100 XYZ at $55.00 for a call.

Your activity or history page shows the same thing as two lines: the option removed, and a stock trade at the strike price.

If you can't find any of this, the honest check is your positions page. If 100 shares you didn't buy are sitting there, you were assigned. If your short option is still listed, you weren't.

Why it's not instant

The buyer's broker, the clearing house and your broker each do a step in sequence. The clearing house doesn't assign to you; it assigns to your broker. Your broker then picks which of its customers gets each notice, usually at random or first-in-first-out. That picking is the part that happens overnight.

So even a put that's $5 in the money at the close doesn't show as shares at 4:01 pm. It's as good as certain, but it isn't done until the morning.

A worked example (an illustration, not a trade idea)

A made-up stock, XYZ, trades at $50. You sell one 30-day $45 put for $1.00 and collect $100. Your broker holds $4,500 aside.

Expiration Friday, XYZ closes at $43. Two dollars in the money.

And the outcome, which depends on Monday's price, not on the notice:

What the notice does not mean

• It doesn't mean you lost. It means you now own shares at the strike, less the premium. Whether that's a loss depends on the stock price. See you got assigned shares, now what?
• It doesn't mean the cash is gone forever. For a put, $4,500 became 100 shares. Those shares can be sold. For a call, the shares became cash.
• It doesn't mean a mistake. In the wheel strategy, assignment is a planned step, not an accident.

When you don't get told

Three cases trip people up:

1. The email went to a filtered folder. Check positions, not just your inbox. Our page on missing the assignment email covers the fallout.
2. You weren't assigned, but you expected to be. A buyer can decline to exercise. The stock may have jumped after hours. See after-hours moves.
3. You were assigned, but the stock closed out of the money. The buyer exercised anyway, usually after an after-hours drop. Same page.

Pin risk, where the close is within pennies of the strike, is the case where the Saturday notice is the only way to know. See pin risk explained.

When the cash actually settles

The shares show up right away. The settlement, when ownership and cash are final, follows the stock rule: one business day. See options settlement explained for what you can and can't do with it in the meantime, especially in a cash account.

What to do with this

1. Turn on your broker's push notifications for assignments and exercises. Most have a setting for it.
2. On any Friday you hold a short option near or in the money, look at your positions Saturday morning. Don't wait for Monday.
3. Before you sell the option, write down what Monday's order will be in each case: assigned, or not. Then the notice is just a trigger, not a decision.

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