Assignment is a fill you never clicked

Two settlement worlds

Index options in India are cash settled: the difference is paid or received and the position disappears. Stock derivatives can move to physical settlement, which creates delivery obligations, margin implications and a considerably more eventful morning.

Cash-settled index option

• Settlement amount credited or debited
• Position closes automatically
• One ledger line to reconcile
• Treat it as the closing trade

Physically settled stock option

• Shares delivered or received
• Additional margin around expiry
• Follow-on trades to unwind
• Multiple lines to reconcile

Import the settlement files

Where a broker publishes assignment or corporate-action statements, pull them in. A residual that appears in the ledger and not in the journal will make your financial-year total disagree with the broker report, and you will find it in June instead of April.

Build a weekly expiry ritual

After every expiry session, reconcile before the next open: closed contracts, settlement lines, any physical obligations. Fifteen minutes, once a week, and the year adds up.

• All expiring contracts accounted for as closed
• Settlement credits and debits imported
• Physical delivery obligations noted with dates
• Ledger balance matches broker statement

Key takeaways

• Import assignment and exercise lines like any other fill.
• Treat cash settlement as the trade closing.
• Reconcile after every expiry, not at year end.

Not advice, not a call. NiyataBook is a personal trading journal, not a SEBI-registered investment adviser or research analyst. Everything above looks backwards at trades that already closed. What happened in a book does not promise what happens next, and F&O can take a year’s savings in a week.