Early Exercise / Assignment Estimator

Screen time value, dividends and interest incentives for an American-style option.

How to use this tool

This is a qualitative incentive screen, not a numerical probability of assignment. A short American option can be assigned on any exercise day. Exercise decisions and allocation cannot be predicted from these inputs alone.

An ITM call near an ex-dividend date may attract exercise when the dividend exceeds remaining time value, but financing and other factors also matter. A deep ITM put with little time value can have an interest incentive to exercise.

A flag is not an instruction to exercise. Price minus intrinsic can be unreliable when quotes are stale or wide; use the exercise-versus-sale comparison and your broker’s contract deadlines.

Worked example

An ITM call with $0.20 time value ahead of a $1 dividend triggers a dividend-incentive flag. It does not imply a specific assignment percentage.

Related tools

Model references and conventions

365 calendar days per year. Continuous rates for theoretical pricing. All examples are illustrative.