Expiration date (options).

In plain English

An option is a contract with a deadline, and the expiration date is that deadline: the date the contract's terms run out. The CFTC glossary defines it as the date on which an option contract automatically expires, the last day an option may be exercised. On US exchanges, standard listed options carry an expiration date of the third Friday of the expiration month, a rule written into the exchange's product specifications rather than chosen by either party to the contract. What happens at expiration is governed by exchange and clearing rules: a contract with value is settled, and one without value simply ends. Because the date is fixed when the contract is created, expirations arrive on a published calendar. Four times a year, in March, June, September, and December, standard equity options, index options, and index futures all reach their expiration on the same third Friday. Market slang calls that day triple witching, and the trading activity it produces reflects contracts coming due rather than any change in what investors think companies are worth.

01Why it matters

Expiration is a calendar event, not a news event. Unusual trading volume on an expiration day tells you that contracts came due, not that anyone changed their mind about the economy.

02The math, step by step

A standard September index option listed on a US exchange carries an expiration date of the third Friday of September. In 2026 that date is September 18. On that day the contract's terms are settled under the exchange's rules and the contract stops existing, and the same is true of every other standard September contract on that calendar.

03What this is NOT

04Receipts

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