Expiration of Options and Futures

[Soes Bandit]

Good Afternoon Guys,

I was wondering if some kind soul could clarify the following for me please?


Index Futures – Expire the third Friday of the month in March, June, September and December.

Single Stock Futures – Expire third Friday of every month.

Index Options – Expire the third Friday of every month and weekly on Friday.

Stock Options – Expire Third Friday of every month and weekly on Friday.


Any help would be very much appreciated

Thank you.

 

[JackRab]

What's your query?

Options expire monthly and some weekly, futures in some indices expire monthly, some only in the 'big' months 3/6/9/12.

It is what it is.

 

[Soes Bandit]

To clarify the information above, as mentioned.

 

[Mr Sept]

Good Afternoon Guys,

I was wondering if some kind soul could clarify the following for me please?


Index Futures – Expire the third Friday of the month in March, June, September and December.

Single Stock Futures – Expire third Friday of every month.

Index Options – Expire the third Friday of every month and weekly on Friday.

Stock Options – Expire Third Friday of every month and weekly on Friday.


Any help would be very much appreciated

Thank you.

You will need to specify the 'product'.

 

[Soes Bandit]

You will need to specify the 'product'.

Sorry, completely forgot about that!

US markets - Indexes such as dow30, nasdaq100, S&P 500 and Nasdaq and NYSE stocks in general for stock options or SSF.

I have tried looking for this information, but you'd be surprised at how many contradictions there are! I think what I have is correct, but I just wanted to make sure.

Kind regards.

 

[Mr Sept]

Sorry, completely forgot about that!

US markets - Indexes such as dow30, nasdaq100, S&P 500 and Nasdaq and NYSE stocks in general for stock options or SSF.

I have tried looking for this information, but you'd be surprised at how many contradictions there are! I think what I have is correct, but I just wanted to make sure.

Kind regards.

I would direct you towards the following http://www.barchart.com/options/overview...Enjoy.

 

[JackRab]

Sorry, completely forgot about that!

US markets - Indexes such as dow30, nasdaq100, S&P 500 and Nasdaq and NYSE stocks in general for stock options or SSF.

I have tried looking for this information, but you'd be surprised at how many contradictions there are! I think what I have is correct, but I just wanted to make sure.

Kind regards.

They are probably not contradictions, but rather the expiry specs differ between all products. For instance, some single stocks have weekly expiry, as well as monthly. Some only 3-monthly (March-June-Sept-Dec). Same with Futures.

 

[Soes Bandit]

They are probably not contradictions, but rather the expiry specs differ between all products. For instance, some single stocks have weekly expiry, as well as monthly. Some only 3-monthly (March-June-Sept-Dec). Same with Futures.

Thanks - I was looking at witching days and their effect on the markets when these products expire.

The book I'm reading was written a while ago and it seems that some information is out of date. I guess with all these new products, i.e. SSF and weekly options and so on, that witching days are now happening every week!

Thanks for answering my other thread

Cheers

 

[BlueRoo]

It is important to understand futures and options expire on different days generally. And for options there are regular contracts and serial contracts. Here is an excel sheet I use to track expiry...

 

[JackRab]

Thanks - I was looking at witching days and their effect on the markets when these products expire.

The book I'm reading was written a while ago and it seems that some information is out of date. I guess with all these new products, i.e. SSF and weekly options and so on, that witching days are now happening every week!

Thanks for answering my other thread

Cheers

That's why I asked what your query was...

The triple witching day is when the big 3 expire. Index Futures, Index Options and Stock Options, which used to be only every 3rd Friday of March, June, Sept, Dec.

They called it witching day for a reason. And that's because there is a lot of interest in the settlement price of all of these at the same date/hour/close. That means there will be a push in a certain direction for the close, bigger that at other days. Lot's of times it is tried to "park" the close on a specific options strike price, usually with a large open interest.

You might think that's impossible to do with these large indices and stocks, but it sure happens, any options trader will tell you that. I've seen it happen a lot.

Now, with more regular expirations technically there are more of these... but those months (March, June, Sept, Dec) are considered the bigger ones.

 

[Soes Bandit]

That's why I asked what your query was...

The triple witching day is when the big 3 expire. Index Futures, Index Options and Stock Options, which used to be only every 3rd Friday of March, June, Sept, Dec.

They called it witching day for a reason. And that's because there is a lot of interest in the settlement price of all of these at the same date/hour/close. That means there will be a push in a certain direction for the close, bigger that at other days. Lot's of times it is tried to "park" the close on a specific options strike price, usually with a large open interest.

You might think that's impossible to do with these large indices and stocks, but it sure happens, any options trader will tell you that. I've seen it happen a lot.

Now, with more regular expirations technically there are more of these... but those months (March, June, Sept, Dec) are considered the bigger ones.

Hi JackRab,

Thanks again for your reply.

Sorry, I maybe should have been clearer on my initial post. I was trying to save time by avoiding redundant information I do understand about witching days/hour and how they cause more volatility and pinning the strike and so on.

My concern was that the more digging I did, the more often I found that these products are expiring - but as you mentioned, I should be more concerned with triple/quad witching, rather than all the others, as these have less of an impact.
I have also read that monthly index/stock options have a definite impact on stock/index prices, much more than the weekly options.

I guess my main concerns should be triple/quad witching days and monthly options expiring as these are the ones which will mainly effect price.

I'm just trying to get a feel for the things in the market that I need to be aware of.

Thanks for your time!