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Options 101
Assignment Fees, Exercise Fees, and Per-Contract Costs
The premium isn't the only thing you pay. A scalper running dozens of trades a week lives or dies on the fee stack most beginners never add up.
NoVo Options Trading · 2026
Your option's premium is the headline cost. Underneath it sits a stack of smaller charges that barely register on one trade but compound brutally across a scalping volume of trades.
The fee stack
Per-contract commission. Many brokers charge a small fee per contract per side. Trade 5 contracts in and out and that's 10 contract-fees on one round trip.
Regulatory and exchange fees. Small statutory fees (ORF, and on the sell side a tiny SEC/FINRA fee) apply per contract.
Exercise / assignment fees. If an option is exercised or assigned, brokers often charge a separate fee — a cost you avoid entirely by closing before expiration.
Why it matters more for scalpers
A buy-and-hold trader pays the stack twice a year. A scalper pays it on every one of many trades, so a fee that looks trivial per contract becomes a meaningful slice of a thin per-trade edge — right alongside the spread you pay. Costs are the silent partner in every scalping strategy.
A $0.65 contract fee is nothing once. It's real money five hundred times a month. Volume magnifies every cost.
Keeping it down
Three levers: use a broker with low per-contract pricing, close positions rather than letting them exercise (which sidesteps exercise/assignment fees and the whole ITM-settlement mess), and don't overtrade — every marginal trade pays the full stack. Costs won't make a losing strategy win, but ignoring them can make a winning one lose.
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NoVo is a software tool for market analysis and for executing trades you initiate, not financial advice. This article is general education, not investment advice. Options trading involves substantial risk of loss, up to and including your entire capital. NoVo makes no guarantee of profit, win rate, or performance, and past results do not predict future outcomes. You are responsible for your own broker account, configuration, and trading decisions.