Can you buy an option and immediately exercise it? Options delays questions

External question — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: notmySOaccount Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/116158 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. Assuming American Options Can you buy a stock option and immediately exercise it - or are you only formally given control of the option at the end of the trading day? Would you be able to sell it immediately just minutes (or seconds) after purchasing it? A more detailed question, What would be the inherent delay in doing a trade such as: buying a put buying the underlying exercising the put to sell the underlying This trade is dependent on completing all 3 parts within a few seconds at most, depending on the situation. Certainly, the parts cannot be completed several minutes apart or have to wait overnight. Sorry if this question is basic, I'm just reading about options, not trading yet.