Quad Witching and Triple Witching: a plain-English guide

Triple vs quad witching

Every month, standard listed options expire on the third Friday. That monthly date is called OPEX. Four times a year, quarterly index futures and their options expire on the same day, which stacks several contract types on one session.

• Triple witching: stock options, stock index options and stock index futures expire together.
• Quad witching: the same three, plus single-stock futures.

Single-stock futures have largely stopped trading in the US, so the two names now usually describe the same day. You will see both used in market coverage.

The 2026 quad witching dates

The schedule is quarterly, on the third Friday of the last month of each calendar quarter. To find it, locate the first Friday of the month and add two weeks.

If the third Friday is an exchange holiday, expiration generally moves to the prior trading day. The monthly expirations in between are on the OPEX calendar.

What tends to happen on witching days

• Heavy volume near the close. Traders close, roll or let positions expire, and the final hour and closing auction often carry much more activity than a normal Friday.
• Index rebalancing. Major index providers commonly schedule quarterly rebalances to take effect around this date, so index funds may buy and sell large baskets at the close.
• Pin risk. A stock can drift toward, and close very near, a strike with large open interest. If you are short an option at that strike, it can be hard to tell whether you will be assigned.
• Rolling. Futures and options positions get rolled to the next quarter, which can add flows that have nothing to do with company news.
• Short-lived moves. Price swings driven by expiration flows can fade the next week. A witching-day move is not necessarily a change in fundamentals.

A checklist for options holders

1. Know which of your positions expire that Friday, and whether each is in, near or out of the money.
2. Decide ahead of time whether to close, roll or let each one expire. Waiting until the last minutes can mean wider spreads.
3. Check your broker’s cut-off time for exercise instructions and its policy on automatically exercising in-the-money options.
4. If you are short a put or call near the strike, plan for possible assignment, including any after-hours move once the market closes.
5. For cash-secured puts, confirm the cash for 100 shares per contract is still available if you are assigned.
6. For covered calls, decide whether you are comfortable having your shares called away.
7. Remember that index options are usually cash-settled, while equity options usually settle in shares.
8. Use limit orders when liquidity is uneven, especially into the close.
9. Look at the next cycle before rolling. The CSP screener shows which names pass ThetaGrade’s published rules each week.

Related

• Monthly OPEX calendar
• Weekly CSP screener
• Cash-secured puts: a plain-English guide

Educational content only, not financial advice. Options involve risk and are not suitable for every investor.

Tickers to explore

A sample of this week’s highly rated names and CSP screen candidates. Each page shows the House Rating, pillar scores and next earnings date.

• AGXA
• FIVEA
• INSWA
• MLIA
• MUA
• NEMA
• NFGA
• NVDAA
• SNDKA
• VICRA

Lists update with each data refresh (as of 2026-10-21). Educational, not financial advice. See all grades on the ratings page.