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I missed the assignment notice. What changed, and what do I do now?

Nothing is broken. Assignment already happened, the broker did it for you, and your account now holds the result. Here's how to read it and what to do today.

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

What happened, in one line

You sold an option. The buyer used it. Your broker moved shares or cash in your account to settle it, and sent a notice you didn't see. That's all. The trade is done whether or not you read the email.

If you sold a put, you now own 100 shares per contract and the cash left your account. If you sold a covered call, your shares are gone and cash arrived. This is Assignment, the normal end of a short option. Our options assignment guide walks through the mechanics.

Where the notice shows up

Brokers don't all put it in the same place. Look in these spots, in this order:

• The activity or transactions tab. The line will say "assignment", "assigned", or "exercise". It's often dated the morning after expiry.
• Messages or notifications inside the app. Many brokers post the notice there and only also email it.
• Your email spam folder. Broker emails get filtered more than you'd think.
• The positions tab. The option is gone. A stock line appeared or vanished.

If you see a stock line you didn't buy, that's your answer. For most people, assignment lands overnight after Friday expiry and shows up Saturday or Monday morning. See assignment notification timing for the usual clock.

What changed in your account, line by line

Read the three numbers that moved, then stop worrying.

If a put was assigned:

1. Cash went down by the strike × 100 per contract.
2. A stock position appeared with that many shares.
3. The cost shown on the position is usually the strike. Some brokers subtract the premium; others don't. Your real cost is the strike minus the premium you collected.

If a covered call was assigned:

1. The shares are gone.
2. Cash went up by the strike × 100 per contract.
3. The premium you collected earlier is already in your cash. Your real sale price is the strike plus that premium.

Nothing else changed. No fee for being late to read it. There's sometimes a small assignment fee from the broker; check your statement.

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

Say you sold one 30-day put on a made-up stock, XYZ, with a $45 strike for $1.00. You collected $100. XYZ closed at $43 on expiry Friday. You went camping.

Monday morning, your account shows 100 shares of XYZ and $4,500 less cash. Here's where you stand depending on where XYZ trades now:

The one thing that matters: you now own a stock, and the stock can keep moving. The $38 row is real. Assigned shares that keep falling are the main risk of the wheel strategy, and reading the notice late doesn't change that.

What to do today

Do these in order. None of them is urgent enough to rush.

1. Confirm the numbers. Match the strike × 100 to the cash change. If anything doesn't add up, call the broker.
2. Write the real cost basis down. Strike minus premium for a put. Strike plus premium for a called-away sale. Put it in your journal.
3. Check the cash. If a put was assigned and your cash balance is now negative, your broker may have lent you the difference on margin. Fix that first.
4. Decide the next step like a fresh trade. Would you buy this stock today at this price? If yes, you're where the wheel strategy expects you to be: holding shares, maybe selling a call. If no, selling the shares is an honest option.
5. Don't sell a call below your cost just to "do something". That's the next mistake waiting for you.

If your shares were called away instead, the job is simpler: note the sale, note the gain or loss, and decide if you want back in.

How to never miss it again

• Turn on push notifications for your broker's app, not just email.
• Put every expiry date in your phone calendar with an alert on the Friday afternoon.
• Check your positions tab every Monday morning, even in a quiet month. What a normal month looks like shows how little that takes.
• Keep a log with every open option, its strike and its expiry. A missed notice is easy to spot when the list is in front of you.

A Canadian note: assignment inside a TFSA or RRSP works the same way on the screen, but whether a put can be sold in that account at all depends on your broker, and permissions differ between them.

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