My point was a tax point not a "rights" point -- if you exercise (and are bullish and can afford to), then you have the advantage of getting the long term capital gains timer going which can be hugely advantageous.

Stated differently, I've much more people screwed by the inverse case -- they DON'T exercise, the leave the company, they have 90 days to exercise vested shares or lose the options, the fair market value has crept up, and they end up with a huge AMT tax hit to keep the stock they worked for.