Upon receipt of an exercise notice, OCC will then assign this exercise notice to one or more Clearing Members with short positions in the same series in accordance with its established procedures. The Clearing Member will, in turn, assign one or more of its customers (either randomly or on a first in first out basis) who hold short positions in that series. The assigned Clearing Member will then be obligated to sell (in the case of a call) or buy (in the case of a put) the underlying shares of stock at the specified strike price. OCC then arranges with a stock clearing corporation designated.
