If it is before the expiration date, you are almost always better off closing it with an offsetting transaction rather than exercising it. When you exercise an option, you give up any extrinsic value it may have. Only the intrinsic value will be realized – any time value remaining is lost. In fact, according to the OCC, only 10% of options are exercised, 60% are traded out, and 30% expire worthless.
You should trade out of the option if you want to lock in profits by "selling to close" if you bought the option, or "buying to close" if you originally sold the option. In your case, trading out of the option right now by "selling to close" would net you a minimum of $110 per option contract. This is assuming you bought 1 contract at .80, and it is now trading (as of this post) at 1.90 x 2.10. Also note that you can place your sell price in between the bid and ask spread to squeeze out more profit (for instance, you could sell your option in the above example at $1.95 or $2.00.
Also, you do not need to wait until the stock hits the strike price in order to exit the option trade, you can do this at ANY time. Hope this helps.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
