Quadruple Witching Day

Quadruple Witching Day

The expiration date for four types of standardized contracts: stock options, stock index options, stock index futures, and single stock futures. Quadruple witching day occurs four times a year, on the third Friday in the last month of each quarter. Investors often unwind their positions on these contracts on or immediately before quadruple witching days, which leads to increased trading volume on those days. See also: Triple witching hour.

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Quadruple witching day. Once every quarter -- on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December -- stock options, stock index options, stock index futures contracts, and single stock futures expire on the same day in the United States.

In the past, when all contracts expired at the same hour of the day, trading could be extremely volatile as professional investors attempted to capitalize on pricing differences.

But in recent years, various adjustments in the trading schedule have helped to reduce the pace.