Options question- newbie

[siva604]

Options Expiring Today

Hi Siva  Your ET $8.00 Call options expire today.  They will exercise automatically if ET closes above $8.00. If you can't buy 200 shares of ET, we'll sell your options about an hour before market close.     I bought 2 contracts of ET with Strike price $8 with contract price of 0.34 $. My breakeven price was 8.34 and expiry was today.   I got that abovementioned message.   My questions? 1. All along i was told "exercising option is upto the person".  Why it says EXERCISE AUTOMATICALLY? 2. What does that mean by if you cant buy 200 shares? I dont have obligation right!   Thanks in advance

[VictoryTDP]

19 minutes ago, siva604 said:

Options Expiring Today

Hi Siva  Your ET $8.00 Call options expire today.  They will exercise automatically if ET closes above $8.00. If you can't buy 200 shares of ET, we'll sell your options about an hour before market close.     I bought 2 contracts of ET with Strike price $8 with contract price of 0.34 $. My breakeven price was 8.34 and expiry was today.   I got that abovementioned message.   My questions? 1. All along i was told "exercising option is upto the person".  Why it says EXERCISE AUTOMATICALLY? 2. What does that mean by if you cant buy 200 shares? I dont have obligation right!   Thanks in advance

1. All along i was told "exercising option is upto the person".  Why it says EXERCISE AUTOMATICALLY?    The brokerage will exercise those options if they become ITM. So better to sell the options before close  2. What does that mean by if you cant buy 200 shares? I dont have obligation right!            This is if your account has insufficient funds to buy those 200 stocks the brokerage will sell those options.

[siva604]

7 minutes ago, VictoryTDP said:

1. All along i was told "exercising option is upto the person".  Why it says EXERCISE AUTOMATICALLY?    The brokerage will exercise those options if they become ITM. So better to sell the options before close  2. What does that mean by if you cant buy 200 shares? I dont have obligation right!            This is if your account has insufficient funds to buy those 200 stocks the brokerage will sell those options.

Thanks buddy. I sold those options after that message. Thanks for your answer.