I was short the META 170 Calls that expired yesterday but wasn't assigned. No big deal, but just kinda surprised.
I thought I read somewhere that if an option expired at least one cent in the money...it would automatically be exercised? Since it has a beneficial gain to be realized. My previous, old broker, Ally Invest, said that I think.
It only traded above in the last minute. So your counterparty likely took the hedge off and if they exercised would carry a delta position into Monday.
Yes, options that expire at least .01 in the money will be automatically exercised. But the holder of the option has until 530pm et (some brokers may have earlier cutoff times) to override this automatic exercise. If the stock is trading below the strike after hours, it may make sense to override the exercise as you could by the stock at a lower price than you would if you exercise the call.
Did happen to my surprise. One time I did sell a CSP that went ITM in a highly volatile biotech daytrading stock and the counter-party did not deliver, they gave me $3700 for free. I expected to book a loss on the trade, but turned out to a win.
I also had experience where I thought I wouldn't have been assigned but ended up being assigned (kind of opposite to what OP described). The case was that the options were not ITM at 4pm but became ITM at some point after hours.
Yes that's an OCC rule by default but you can override that with your broker when you do not want to exercise even when your option is ITM but you have to inform your broker of that intention before the broke's cut-off time and each broker has different cut-off time I believe.