The sentence a put seller fears most isn’t “it’s dropping” — it’s “You have been assigned.”
On June 30 I sold one NVTS 16P (expiring Jul 2) for $17 in premium. Two days later NVTS broke below $16, and I was assigned: 100 shares at $16 each.
Then I did the dumbest thing in hindsight: after taking delivery, I did nothing.
1. The Timeline: 15 Days of Delay
| Date | Event | What I could have done |
|---|---|---|
| 6/30 | Sold NVTS 16P @ $0.17, collected $17 | — |
| 7/2 | Assigned 100 shares @ $16; closed at $14.46 | Sell same day: about -$154 |
| 7/17 | Finally cut @ $10.9353 | Already -$491.76 |
Selling at $14.46 vs $10.94: a $3.52-per-share difference. That $352 is the price of “let’s wait and see.”
2. The Ledger
📒 Ledger detail (click to expand)
| Item | Number |
|---|---|
| Assignment cost | 100 × $16.00 = $1,600 (net $1,584.15 after the put premium) |
| Cut price | 100 × $10.9353 = $1,093.53 |
| Realized P&L | -$491.76 (-31%, broker settlement basis) |
The irony: from late May to mid-July my NVTS option legs made about +$202 (26P +$157, 17C +$49, 31JUL 17C +$66, minus the 29MAY 28P -$77). Everything the options earned was wiped out by one delayed stock decision — plus another $290 on top.
3. Why I Delayed
Three excuses I told myself:
- “The fundamentals haven’t changed” — the GaN story is intact. Problem: whether the story is intact and whether I should hold these 100 shares are two different questions.
- “The option legs are profitable, so dragging the stock is fine” — the most dangerous one. Option profits became a license to procrastinate.
- “It’s dropped so much, a bounce must be coming” — the market doesn’t listen.
What the three excuses have in common: none of them was thought through on assignment day. They were all invented afterwards to explain why I hadn’t acted.
4. The Lesson: Assignment Day = Decision Day
The moment you’re assigned, you’re holding. There is no “wait and see” option — delay itself is a decision, and it defaults to “keep holding.”
Before selling a put, write the “assignment script”:
- Will I accept delivery? (If not: buy back the put or sell the stock same day)
- If I take the stock, where’s the stop? (-8%? -10%?)
- What’s the time stop? (Three days? A week?)
With the script written, assignment day is just execution. Assignment without a script is handing the market a knife.
Options make “planned money”; stock losses are “unplanned money.” Failing to decide on assignment day is where the plan dies first.