> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.allocait.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Options

> Options are held at the premium you record, and count zero once expired.

An option counts at its **mark**: the premium per share that you recorded. Allocait looks up no option price, so the mark is your own number, kept with the holding. It is never a quote from Allocait.

## How to record one

* **Symbol.** An option uses an OCC-style symbol: the root, the expiry as YYMMDD, `C` for a call or `P` for a put, and the strike times 1,000 as eight digits.
* **Size.** Record shares as contracts times 100, filed under the Options asset class.
* **Value.** Shares times mark.

Illustrative example. The figures are hypothetical, not a recommendation.

`ECHO281215P00050000` is a put on ECHO that expires Dec 15, 2028, with a strike of $50. Three contracts at a $2.10 premium is recorded as 300 shares with a mark of $2.10, valuing the position at $630.

## Prices for an option

A price that you or your agent pass for an option on the REST API or MCP server replaces the mark for that call only and is never stored. Changing only the mark records no trade and moves no cash.

An option with no mark is an unpriced holding. A held option with a mark needs no price from an agent.

## Expiry

An option stops counting the day after its expiry date, which Allocait reads from the symbol in US Eastern time. From then on the position reads as expired, counts as 0 whatever price is passed, and is left out of size checks. On the expiry date it still counts.

Allocait changes nothing else. It can't know whether the option expired worthless, was sold or was exercised, so you remove it or record what it became. Removing an expired option adds no cash. Allocait sends no alert for an expiry.

## Next steps

* [Exposure](https://docs.allocait.app/concepts/exposure.md) shows how an option counts in the reading.
* [Prices](https://docs.allocait.app/concepts/prices.md) explains why an agent supplies its own prices.
* [Update holdings](https://docs.allocait.app/guides/update-holdings.md) records an option.


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