RUNNER

Collateral and the writer pool ​

Every option on Runner is fully backed from the moment it trades. This page covers how that backing is held, assigned and released.

Collateral ​

  • A call is backed by the tokens it would deliver. This is a covered call.
  • A put is backed by the USDC strike it would pay. This is a cash-secured put.

The writer receives the premium when the order fills. There is no margin, no borrowing and no liquidation, for the writer or for the buyer.

Position sides ​

A trading account holds one position per strike, with a call side and a put side. Each side is Long if you hold options or Short if you wrote them. A buy in a series where you are Short closes the Short first, and a sell where you are Long closes the Long first. You are never long and short the same series at once.

The writer pool ​

All writers of one series (one market, strike, and call or put) share one writer pool. A writer holds shares of the pool, not a list of individual contracts. A writer's share halves every half-life, at the same rate as the options sold.

Assignment and payouts ​

When a holder exercises, every writer in the pool is assigned by the same fraction. Nobody is picked first. Each writer's collateral for that fraction goes to the holder, and what the holder paid in (the strike on a call, the tokens on a put) is owed to the writers instead.

Two things build up for a writer this way, collateral released as the obligation decays and exercise proceeds. They reach the writer's available balance when the position is brought current. Buying back does that on the spot. Otherwise Runner's keeper does it as positions decay. Until then they cannot be withdrawn or back new asks.

Closing a short ​

Buy it back on the book, or wait for it to decay. Buying back burns your pool shares, pays what they are owed and releases their collateral at once. See Close a short.