# Options Expiration Calendar - Monthly & Weekly Dates Source: https://theoptionsbench.com/options-expiration-calendar/ > Plain-text mirror for AI/LLM ingestion. Canonical HTML page: https://theoptionsbench.com/options-expiration-calendar/ --- Options expiration dates - key facts US equity options expire on Fridays: the third Friday of the month (monthly) and most other Fridays (weekly). The dates follow a fixed rule, so they are computed here, not fetched. Monthly The third Friday of each calendar month - the most liquid expiration. Weekly Most other Fridays; shorter-dated, faster time decay. Quarterly March, June, September and December - also the third Friday. Holiday shift If the Friday is Good Friday (a market holiday), expiration moves to the Thursday before. Source Pure date math, computed live in your browser - no feed, no server. ## How expiration dates work US-listed equity options settle on a fixed calendar. The **monthly** series for any stock expires on the **third Friday** of the month - take the first Friday and add two weeks. Because it is a rule rather than a published schedule, every monthly date is known years ahead. **Weekly** options, where they are listed, expire on most of the other Fridays; they work the same way but have a shorter life and decay faster. The one exception is a holiday. If the third Friday - or any expiration Friday - falls on a market holiday, the option expires on the previous trading day. The only US market holiday that can land on a Friday is **Good Friday**, so in those years (2025 is one) the affected expiration shifts to the Thursday before. This page computes Good Friday and applies that shift for you. ## Why the date matters for your trade - Time decay accelerates near expiration. The fewer days remain, the faster an option bleeds value - a weekly and a monthly at the same strike behave very differently. - Liquidity clusters on the monthly. The third-Friday series usually has the tightest spreads and the most strikes, which is why most income sellers anchor to it. - Events inside the window change everything. An earnings date before your expiration is the single most important thing to check - see the expected move the market is pricing in. - Assignment happens at expiration. An in-the-money short option is assigned over the expiration weekend - plan the exit before the day arrives. ## Frequently asked questions When do US stock options expire? Standard monthly equity options expire on the third Friday of the month. Many liquid names also list weekly options that expire most other Fridays. Trading stops at the close on the expiration day, and in-the-money options are exercised over that weekend. This page lists the upcoming dates and counts the days to each. What is the third-Friday rule? The "monthly" expiration for US equity options is always the third Friday of the calendar month - found by taking the first Friday and adding two weeks. It is a fixed rule, not a published schedule, so the dates are fully computable years in advance. Quarterly expirations (March, June, September, December) fall on the same third-Friday cadence. What happens when the third Friday is a holiday? If that Friday is a market holiday, the option expires on the preceding trading day instead. In practice the only US market holiday that can land on a Friday is Good Friday, so in those years the affected expiration moves to the Thursday before. This calendar applies that shift automatically and flags it. What is the difference between weekly and monthly expirations? Weekly options (Fridays other than the third) behave the same way but have a shorter life, so they decay faster and are used for short-dated trades and event plays. Monthly options (the third Friday) are the most liquid and have the widest range of strikes. Both are shown here; turn off weeklies to see only the monthly dates. Why does the list update on its own? The dates are computed from your device's current date right in the browser - there is no server, no feed and nothing stored. Whenever you load the page it recalculates the next expirations from today, so the list is always current and the days-to-expiration are accurate. ## Related tools Size the move expected before an expiration with the Expected Move Calculator, weigh the odds with the Probability Calculator, and decide whether to roll a position before it expires in the Rolling Decision Calculator. ## Embed this calculator on your site Free to embed on a blog, course page or broker comparison - paste this where you want the calculator to appear. Please keep the "Powered by The Options Bench" link in the widget. Embed code A lightweight, ad-free version of this calculator. Preview the widget. TC Theo Chen Founder, The Options Bench Theo has traded options as a retail trader out of Asia for over a decade, focused on income strategies - covered calls, cash-secured puts and the wheel, managed around days-to-expiration and the Greeks rather than gut feel. He builds these calculators to get the awkward edge cases right, the ones most options tools quietly skip.