Assignment and exercise are where new options traders get burned — a winning contract that quietly turns into a stock position and a margin call. These are two different risks, and NoVo handles them in two different ways: one it takes off the table entirely, the other it makes a single click for you to manage.
Long-only means no assignment — ever
NoVo buys single long options. As a buyer, you hold a right, not an obligation — so you can never be assigned. Assignment is a seller's risk, and NoVo isn't selling options. That entire category of surprise is off the table by design, and nothing you do changes it.
Auto-exercise: close before the bell, in one click
The other risk is automatic exercise — an in-the-money option settling into shares at expiration. If you hold a 0DTE into the close and it finishes in the money, it will auto-exercise into a physically-settled stock position you'd have to fund. The fix is simple, and it's built into the cockpit: sell to close before the bell in one click, and the winner becomes cash in your account, not $74,000 of SPY you didn't plan for. NoVo gives you a live read straight into the final minutes — the levels, the regime, your P&L — and closes the position the instant you click.
Assignment can't touch a long option. Auto-exercise is one click away — NoVo makes closing effortless.
What that means for you
You never face assignment — long-only takes that off the table for good. Auto-exercise is the one thing you manage yourself: don't ride an in-the-money 0DTE into the close, and there's nothing to fund. NoVo hands you a live read into the final minutes and a one-click exit, and your money stays in your own non-custodial broker account the whole time. That's the manual-first trade-off working as intended — you hold the wheel, right through the close — and if you ever get caught, here's what a broker does when an option expires ITM and you don't have the cash.