Will the long leg of an option spread be automatically exercised at expiration if the short is assigned?

Spread positions can have unique expiration risks associated with them. In the case of U.S. securities options, the OCC will automatically exercise option contracts at expiration only if the option is In-the-Money by $0.01 or greater. If both legs of your expiring option spread are In-the-Money, then the long leg will be auto exercised by the OCC and the short may be assigned. It is possible that a short expiring option leg that finishes In-the-Money is lapsed by the owner and you will not be assigned. For non-U.S. options, please refer to the…

If the short call leg of a covered write position is assigned, the long stock position will be applied to satisfy the stock delivery obligation on the short call. The price at which that long stock position will be closed out is equal to the short call option strike price…

In the case of exchange listed US securities options, the clearinghouse (OCC) will automatically exercise all cash and physically settled options which are in-the-money by at least USD 0.01 at expiration (e.g., a call option having a strike price of …

No. There is no provision for issuing conditional exercise instructions to the OCC. The OCC determines the assignment of options based upon a random process which is initiated only after the deadline for submitting all exercise instructions has ended. In order to avoid the delivery of a long or short underlying stock position when only the short leg of an option spread is in-the-money at expiration, the account holder would need to either close out that short position or consider exercising an at-the-money long option…