I'm looking to buy puts for short-term option trading. My time horizon is a week to two weeks at most. I only ever trade the options - I never hold to expiration. When I attempt to buy a put, I get an error saying that I don't hold the underlying assets required.
Since I'm buying the put I don't have an obligation to sell and will never be assigned but I understand that if the option expires ITM, my brokerage firm will exercise the put automatically for me, thus throwing me short on the stock. I don't have a margin account and don't really want one.
But then for a single contract with a $100 strike, that's $10,000 right there for the underlying on one put. My average and preferred order price hovers around 1-2k though - these are just bought calls.
Is it common to not be able to buy puts without owning the underlying? Or could it just be that my option access level isn't high enough.