QWin: How do expired options leave the investment account. The system doesn't seem to do anything w

Joseph DiMambro

Expired Options remain in the investment account.  also, the system doesn't update option pricing as it changes like it does stock pricing.

K.O. (Win-Premier)

Hi Joseph.  Let me take your comments separately.

Options prices should update in Quicken provided the symbol is stored in the standard OCC format (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_symbol).  Note that when some brokers download options transactions they do not use the standard OCC format for the symbol.  I know for a fact that TD Ameritrade does not use the standard OCC format and Schwab does use the standard OCC format.  I cannot be sure of the many other brokers that are out there.

Quicken does not deal directly with the expiration of options so when you say "expired options remain in the investment account" I'm assuming you mean the actual transaction in your account and not the security list itself.  Quicken does not do anything related to the disposition of any open position in an account (e.g. closing, assigning, expiring, transferring, etc) as it does not know what transactions have occurred in your account at your brokerage.  Any change in position (closing, expiring, assignment, transfer) needs to be sent to Quicken from the broker via downloaded transactions.  And I think that is the right way for Quicken to handle them as I wouldn't want Quicken making alterations to my accounts based on custom logic it creates.  Its the broker's job to tell quicken about any change in your account.  Again different brokers send different transactions to Quicken for an expiring option and not all are handled appropriately in Quicken (i.e. there are some logic bugs in Quicken related to how Quicken interprets what it receives from brokerages for expiring options - you can search for my other posts on these bugs if you are interested).

On the outside chance that you were referring to the security list not being updated when an option expires you are correct in that it won't change.  The way I handle expired options is to just uncheck the download box and then hide the security.  There is no automated way to do this.

Hope this helps.  Feel free to reply if you have further questions.

jr7107

If I could add to this, I have seen behavior from Q with a number of different brokers.

Schwab
Long options expiry. Processes a "Sold" transaction correctly. 
Short options expiry. Processes a "Sold" transaction that needs to be a "Cover Short" transaction.

TD Ameritrade
Long options expiry. Processes a "Removed" transaction that needs to be a "Sold" transaction. 
Short options expiry. Processes an "Added" transaction that needs to be a "Cover Short" transaction.

For both the above brokers, if the security is "Matched to Online" then I have seen prices accurate after an account update.

Ultimately it depends on your broker and what they Q server is sending through upon account update.