SBNY Puts

This site is dedicated to displaying the unfair, egregious, and illegal treatment of market participants by any an all institutions. If you have evidence of the aforementioned, please email admin@sbnyputs.com

Currently some brokers are still mis-marking SBNY and/or refusing to honor the options holder's right to exercise.

Below is the list of brokers violating their client's rights.

Exhibit 1 - 14MAR23

"I have Sbny June 60 puts with fidelity. Fidelity told me they have to wait on OCC. OCC sent attached email. Nothing else except fidelity and OCC blaming eachother. "

Exhibit 2 - 14MAR23

"I have 5 contracts for 3-17-23 @70 which expire on Friday. I’ve reached out to Citi to ask about it but haven’t heard back from them yet. Sounds like I may need to send along some more details if these won’t settle."

Exhibit 3 - 14MAR23

"I have (long) 5 put contracts, with TD Ameritrade. My conversations with them since Sunday night, ranged from clueless reps, to unusual apathy, stock statements, borderline coaxing to just let the options expire. In the least, why should another market participant run away with my premium, when I do not have access to it, and will lose it on Mar 17, if I don't exercise the puts. But, really, it's the max gain from strike price to almost $0 (value of a shut down company/stock, that I am aiming to be awarded with. "

Exhibit 4-1

Exhibit 4-2

Exhibit 4-3

Exhibit 4-4

Exhibit 4-5

Exhibit 4-6

Exhibit 4-7

Exhibit 4-8

Exhibit 4-9

Exhibit 5-1

Exhibit 5-2

Exhibit 5-3

Exhibit 5-4

Exhibit 6 - 14MAR23

Exhibit 7 - 14MAR23

"I am in Canada.  I have 3/17 puts ($105 and $110 strikes)  first one - in Questrade.  See e-mail below.  This is on a margin account and I can't close/sell the option and can only put a request to exercise, and will have to maintain a margin with fees which is absurd. 


2nd one is truly messed up.  TD Canada Trust (TD Direct Investing) In a TFSA account (registered account).  I can buy options in a TFSA but apparently cannot exercise options in this scenario as I cannot be short in this account.   So effectively this will just expire.  The only alternative is not a real alternative - move them over to a non-registered account, which means I lose the contribution room AND the tax-free status.  Of not just profits, but the book cost.    AND I have to keep a margin maintenance on the account which is insane.  They are using the strike price instead of what the fair value is so the costs are excessive. "

Exhibit 8 - 14MAR23

"I have several calls into Robinhood about my 3 $65 strike price 3/17 expiry puts purchase on Friday March 10, 2023.  They have told me several times I would need to own the shares in order to exercise the put options.  Odd thing is they have told me this knowing that they don’t offer the option to short a stock and I can’t BUY shares because the stock is halted.  I have a TD Ameritrade account but to transfer the $SBNY put options would take 7-10 business days and my expiry for the options is 3/17/23 and today is 3/14/23.   I have provided photographs of my communications with them and also of my order to sell the puts themselves. The options desk phone operators are contractors themselves and it seems they are protecting the broker seller of these options.  I’m the buyer of them.  The SP is zero, and they owe me per the contract I made with them to buy these puts $19,500.00 (3 contracts $65 strike price 3/17 expiry) "

Exhibit 9-1 - 14MAR23

"I have 23 $50 PUTS for April 21 Exp. 


Fidelity will not let me exercise. Here is what I received from the OCC.


I have several recorded phone conversations with Fidelity Premium Support and Fidelity Interactive Broker desk telling me the same thing about "waiting to see what happens, we need a stock price, the stock has to be traded live" ect."

Exhibit 9-2

Exhibit 9-3

Exhibit 9-4

Exhibit 9-5

Exhibit 9-6

Exhibit 10-1

Exhibit 10-1

Exhibit 10-1

Exhibit 10-1

Exhibit 11-1

Exhibit 11-1

Exhibit 11-1

Exhibit 11-4

Exhibit 11-5

Exhibit 11-6

Exhibit 12

Exhibit 13-1

Exhibit 13-2

Exhibit 13-3

Exhibit 13-4

Exhibit 14-1

Exhibit 14-2

Exhibit 14-3

Exhibit 14-4

Exhibit 14-5

Exhibit 15-1

Exhibit 15-2

Exhibit 15-3

Exhibit 15-4

Exhibit 15-5

Exhibit 15-6

Exhibit 16 - 15MAR23

"Today, I called ETrade to attempt to exercise put options on Signature Bank of New York ($SBNY) which I am holding in my account #xxxx-xxxx. I have 5 $SBNY 65 puts and 1 $SBNY 50 put expiring on Friday, March 17.

Over the weekend, a joint statement was issued by the US Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDIC (https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20230312b.htm) in which it was announced that Signature Bank had been closed by its state regulator and seized under Section 606 of the New York Banking Law (https://twitter.com/Frances_Coppola/status/1635590780378030080). The statement reads in part: "Shareholders and certain unsecured debtholders will not be protected."


A trading halt has been in place for SBNY shares since the Monday open. Although the U.S. government has in essence averred that the shares are worthless or nearly so, the stock continues to be "valued" at $70, waiting on such time that trading can be reopened. Since the trading halt could last past this Friday, I do not want to take the risk that the option contracts I am holding will expire worthless, and would like to exercise them early, so that I can convert them to a short shares position which will not expire. Today, I called ETrade to try to do this. The first customer service representative I spoke with contacted other parties within ETrade to discuss the situation, and then indicated that I should be able to exercise, and that there was currently a 100% margin requirement being applied to short positions in SBNY. Then, while I was on the phone with him, the representative told me that the requirement had been raised to 300%. At this point I asked to be transferred to a more senior person, whose name was Tyler Dodson. He said that the current margin requirement on SBNY longs was 100%, and that the difference was due to the "theoretically unlimited" risk of a short position in SBNY shares.

I find these actions on ETrade's part completely unprofessional and unacceptable. There is zero risk in allowing your account holders to open new short positions in SBNY at a $65 or $50 entry price at a 100% margin collateral rate. I would think it would be in ETrade's interest both to help their account holders who have expiring SBNY puts to realize their profits (which will ultimately convert into balances at ETrade), as well as to avoid the reputational hit of having these bizarre risk limit decisions scrutinized in arbitration or the news media. "

Exhibit 17-

Exhibit 17-2

Exhibit 17-3

Exhibit 17-4

Exhibit 17-5

Exhibit 17-6

Exhibit 17-7

Exhibit 17-8