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How often do cash-secured puts get assigned?

About as often as the delta suggests, so a 0.25-delta put is assigned roughly 1 time in 4. The catch is that assignments don't spread out evenly. They cluster in the months the market falls, which is exactly when you'd rather not be buying.

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

The short answer

Roughly as often as the Delta says. A 0.25-delta put is assigned about 1 time in 4 by the market's own estimate on the day you sell it. A 0.15-delta put, less than that.

But the average hides the shape. Puts don't get assigned one here, one there. They get assigned in bunches, in the months everything falls. A seller can go a long calm stretch with no assignments and then get every open put assigned in the same week.

If delta is new to you, read delta for option sellers first.

Why delta is only the calm-weather answer

Delta comes from Implied volatility, which is what the market expects now. In a calm market it's low, so a put a few dollars below the price shows a small delta and a small premium. That estimate is fair for a calm month.

Then something changes. Volatility jumps, the stock gaps, and the put that was 0.25 delta on Monday is 0.60 on Friday. The odds you were quoted were for a world that no longer exists. That's not the market lying. It's the market updating.

Assignments cluster, and that's the whole risk

That last row is where the "1 in 4" idea stops helping. If you had four puts open on four stocks, you weren't going to get one assignment. In a broad drop you get four.

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

For six months you sell a 30-day $45 put on a made-up stock, XYZ, trading around $50, for $1.00 each time. Delta about 0.25. Five of them expire. You've collected $500 and been assigned zero times. It feels like the odds are working.

Month six, the market turns. XYZ drops to $38 at expiry.

Eight months in, seven premiums collected, and you're down $750 holding 100 shares of a stock at $31 that you paid $45 for. The call you sold to "repair" it was struck below your cost, so a rebound to $45 would have been sold at $40.

That path has its own page: assigned and the stock kept falling.

What to do with this

Assignment isn't the problem to avoid. It's the deal you signed. The problems to avoid are the ones that make a clustered assignment a disaster:

• Only sell puts on stocks you'd buy at the strike today. Then assignment at $45 is a purchase you planned, not a trap.
• Count your open puts as if they'll all be assigned at once. Four puts at $45 is a $18,000 promise, not four small premiums.
• Keep cash outside the puts. If every dollar is set aside, a bear market leaves you with no choices.
• Don't size up after a calm stretch. A run of expiries is the market being quiet, not you being good.

The wheel strategy only works for people who were fine owning the stock. For the mirror question, see how often do covered calls get assigned? For what the loss really is, see what's the catch with selling options?

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