A forgotten options expiration turned a margin account into a $7.5 million liability
As seen on the 24/7 Wall St. homepage on October 13, 2026.
Buddy, you are borrowing several million dollars from someone who absolutely wants it back.
Forgetting to sell in-the-money calls at expiration got this trader auto-exercised into $7.8 million of stock on $7.5 million of broker margin, and a 4% dip zeroes the account. If you trade options, set the expiration-day reminder before you set the price target.
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A trader on r/wallstreetbets bought calls expiring in one day, let them close in the money without selling, and woke up to find the broker had auto-exercised them into 10,000 shares. That single lapse in expiration-day management left the account holding $7.8 million worth of stock funded almost entirely by broker margin.
The trader's own stake going in was roughly $400K, leaving around $7.5 million that belongs to the broker and must be returned. User BriackYOLO put it plainly in the top comment: 'Buddy, you are borrowing several million dollars from someone who absolutely wants it back.'
A commenter in the thread ran the numbers: at 25x leverage, a 4% decline in the underlying stock zeroes the account entirely. The maintenance requirement was already blown past, putting a forced liquidation well within reach.
The post frames all of this as a blessing and a chance to 'grow wealth into cold hard cash,' and that gap between the trader's read and reality is what pulled in 355 comments. Auto-exercise transfers a liability, and in-the-money calls require a sell order before the close.