Quarterly expiration
Also: triple witching
The third Friday of March, June, September and December, when options and index products expire together. It concentrates volume and tends to move the market.
In the chapter
IIITime
The only factor that runs one way
From the same chapter
- DTEHow many days the contract has left. It is the number that decides how much time weighs against direction.
- 0DTEContracts expiring today. All their value is extrinsic and burns in hours: the fastest-moving and the least forgiving.
- Time decayThe daily loss of extrinsic value. Not linear: it accelerates towards expiration and is brutal in the final week.
- RollingClosing a contract and opening the same one at another expiry or strike. It does not fix a wrong thesis: it buys time, and time costs money.