Interactive Brokers enhances Option Exercise display
Electronic trading major Interactive Brokers continues to bolster the functionalities of its trading solutions. The most recent updates to Client Portal include:
- Option Exercise: Display enhancement that now shows a warning message about egregious options exercise/lapse requests.
- PortfolioAnalyst: Updates to menu navigation.
- Corporate Action notifications will go to Message Center instead of the Corporate Actions Manager.
- You can now elect to add a multi-leg combination order to a Watchlist using the Add to Watchlist feature.
Interactive Brokers’ Client Portal now supports the ability to exercise/lapse long options positions. To take action on long options in your portfolio, from the Trade menu select Exercise/Lapse Options. Alternatively, select the position from your portfolio and find the Exercise/Lapse button in the Order Ticket.
The list of long positions is presented, each with an associated in-the-money (ITM) or out-of-the-money (OTM) tag and “Optimal Action” field with “Hold” or “Exercise” entry. Dividend-paying positions that may be affected by early exercise show a yellow “lightening” icon next to them. These positions are also tagged in your portfolio. Mouse over the icon to find out whether exercising this option early to collect the dividend is projected to be beneficial.
To exercise an out-of-the money option you must first select Allow Exercise, which indicates that you understand that exercising an out-of-the money option will result in a monetary loss. You will only see this preference if you select an OTM options position.
If you elect to exercise, the request can be cancelled up until the time of exercise which generally occurs by the morning of the next business day but may occur sooner. If desired, you can specify that an option exercise request be immediately final (non-editable and cannot be canceled) by checking Make Final. Selecting this preference allows for immediate delivery of the underlying stock into your account and immediate closing of the option position. Note that some contracts will not follow this rule and will remain revocable up until the clearing house deadline.