Quadruple Witching vs Triple Witching: Wetin Change?

Quadruple witching vs triple witching dey come down to one leg wey no dey trade again. Quadruple witching describe the four Fridays every year when index futures, index options, single stock options and single stock futures all expire the same morning. US single stock futures stop trading for 2020, so na three products dey expire for American markets now. Na why triple witching be the correct name for wetin dey happen today.

Na quadruple witching or triple witching?

For US markets in 2026, na triple witching. These na the four contract types wey the old name count, one by one.

• Index future na agreement to settle the level of stock index, like S&P 500, on fixed date.
• Index option na right to buy or sell that index level. Dem settle am with cash, no be shares.
• Single stock option na right to buy or sell 100 shares of one named company.
• Single stock future na agreement to settle the price of one named company shares on fixed date.

Na the last item be the leg wey disappear. US single stock futures dey trade almost completely on OneChicago, a joint venture exchange. Dem never come close to the size of the listed options market wey dey beside dem. OneChicago wind down for 2020 and the contracts stop trading. As of August 2026, no US exchange list dem. Na why US quarterly expiration carry three products.

Outside the United States, the fourth leg still dey alive. European and Asian derivatives exchanges still list single stock futures. Quarterly expiration for those markets fit genuinely stack four contract types for one morning. The word no wrong everywhere. E wrong when person dey talk about the market wey most people mean when dem type am. Plenty US explainers dem write before 2020 and dem never update am. Na maintenance gap be that, no be misunderstanding. The useful takeaway na date: if article wey target US readers talk quadruple, check whether dem write am before 2020.

The mechanics wey remain no change, and dem dey explain am for wetin triple witching be. This year calendar dey for triple witching dates for 2026.

Wetin still dey happen on those four Fridays

Losing one leg no make the day quiet. Three expirations still land together on the third Friday of March, June, September and December. Two other things still share the date. Several major index families schedule their quarterly reviews to take effect at that same close. So funds wey track those indexes trade the additions and removals on one print. Quarterly expiration also be the biggest of the twelve monthly ones, because the index and futures cycles line up with am.

Volume na the clearest way to see the pile-up.

WITH fridays AS
(
    SELECT
        date,
        toFloat64(volume) AS vol,
        (toMonth(date) IN (3, 6, 9, 12) AND toDayOfMonth(date) BETWEEN 15 AND 21) AS is_expiry
    FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
    WHERE ticker = 'SPY'
      AND date >= '2023-01-01'
      AND date <  today()
      AND toDayOfWeek(date) = 5
),
ordinary AS
(
    SELECT avg(vol) AS avg_ordinary_friday
    FROM fridays
    WHERE is_expiry = 0
)
SELECT
    toString(f.date)                         AS session_date,
    formatDateTime(f.date, '%b %Y')          AS session_label,
    round(f.vol / 1e6, 1)                    AS spy_volume_millions,
    round(f.vol / o.avg_ordinary_friday, 2)  AS vs_ordinary_friday_ratio
FROM fridays AS f
CROSS JOIN ordinary AS o
WHERE f.is_expiry = 1
ORDER BY f.date

SPY na the exchange traded fund wey track S&P 500. E be the busiest listing for US market, so e dey give clean gauge. For the earliest quarterly session wey dey show, Mar 2023, e trade 140.4 million shares, or 1.85 times the average ordinary Friday across the window. For the most recent one, Mar 2026, e trade 165.6 million, or 2.18 times ordinary. The panel plot 13 quarterly sessions.

Quarter fit miss from chart wey dem build this way. If the third Friday fall on exchange holiday, monthly expiration move to the Thursday before am. So no Friday session dey available to plot.

When volume dey print during the day?

Daily total dey hide the shape. If dem split one expiration Friday into half-hour buckets and put am beside ordinary Friday one week later, e show where the extra activity dey.

WITH bars AS
(
    SELECT
        toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')         AS et,
        toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) AS session,
        toFloat64(volume)                                    AS vol
    FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
    WHERE ticker = 'SPY'
      AND window_start >= '2026-03-20 00:00:00'
      AND window_start <  '2026-03-28 00:00:00'
      AND toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) IN ('2026-03-20', '2026-03-27')
      AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
           + toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) >= 570
      AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
           + toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) <= 960
),
day_totals AS
(
    SELECT
        sumIf(vol, session = '2026-03-20') AS expiry_total,
        sumIf(vol, session = '2026-03-27') AS ordinary_total
    FROM bars
)
SELECT
    formatDateTime(toStartOfInterval(b.et, INTERVAL 30 MINUTE), '%H:%i')            AS et_time,
    round(100 * sumIf(b.vol, b.session = '2026-03-20') / any(t.expiry_total), 2)    AS expiry_friday_pct,
    round(100 * sumIf(b.vol, b.session = '2026-03-27') / any(t.ordinary_total), 2)  AS ordinary_friday_pct
FROM bars AS b
CROSS JOIN day_totals AS t
GROUP BY et_time
ORDER BY et_time

Both sessions open heavy. The 09:30 bucket take 8.07 percent of the expiration session regular-hours volume, compared with 11.59 percent for ordinary Friday. The final bucket, 16:00, na one minute, and e hold the closing auction: 0.54 percent of the expiration day regular-hours volume, compared with 0.46 percent one week later. For the expiration session, that single minute na small share of the fund regular-hours volume. We need state am clearly because people usually describe the closing cross as the moment when the day volume land. SPY trade big size across all 390 minutes of regular session. One crossing no dominate the tape. Wetin the crossing fix na the price, no be the day turnover.

The closing auction na one crossing wey the primary exchange run at 4:00 p.m. ET. E produce one official closing price. Fund wey track index need that price match the index wey e follow. So quarterly index changes and expiring index products converge on that one minute. The same pattern dey show name by name.

WITH bars AS
(
    SELECT
        ticker,
        toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) AS session,
        (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
         + toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) AS et_minute,
        toFloat64(volume) AS vol
    FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
    WHERE ticker IN ('AAPL', 'MSFT', 'NVDA', 'KO', 'JNJ', 'XOM')
      AND window_start >= '2026-03-20 00:00:00'
      AND window_start <  '2026-03-28 00:00:00'
      AND toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) IN ('2026-03-20', '2026-03-27')
      AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
           + toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) >= 570
      AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
           + toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) <= 960
)
SELECT
    ticker AS symbol,
    round(100 * sumIf(vol, session = '2026-03-20' AND et_minute = 960)
              / sumIf(vol, session = '2026-03-20'), 2) AS expiry_close_pct,
    round(100 * sumIf(vol, session = '2026-03-27' AND et_minute = 960)
              / sumIf(vol, session = '2026-03-27'), 2) AS ordinary_close_pct
FROM bars
GROUP BY symbol
HAVING sumIf(vol, session = '2026-03-20') > 0
   AND sumIf(vol, session = '2026-03-27') > 0
ORDER BY expiry_close_pct DESC

AAPL put the biggest share through the close: 3.4 percent of its regular-hours volume on expiration Friday, compared with 2.05 percent one week later. The gap between the two bars for each name measure how much more of the day land for that single minute. Anybody wey hold option with strike near the closing price dey watch this print closely. Na this topic pin risk for options expiration dey cover.

Why the morning matter too

No be every expiring contract dey settle from closing price. Many index products settle for morning, based on Special Opening Quotation. Dem assemble that value from the opening print of every index member. But the index members no all open for the same second. The settlement number fit land for level wey the index itself never display on any screen. Na one of the less intuitive features of the day be this.

Expiration Friday get two focal points, no be one: opening print wey fix AM settled contracts, and closing print wey fix PM settled contracts together with quarterly index rebalance. Japan dey use the same morning idea on its own quarterly schedule, as dem describe for Japan SQ day. The US split between the two conventions dey cover for AM settled versus PM settled options.

Witching Friday mean bigger move?

The volume na real. The direction claim wey people usually attach to am na separate question. E easy to check: compare the average size of SPY open-to-close move on quarterly expiration Fridays with every other Friday for the same year.

WITH fridays AS
(
    SELECT
        toYear(date) AS y,
        abs(100 * (toFloat64(close) - toFloat64(open)) / toFloat64(open)) AS abs_move_pct,
        (toMonth(date) IN (3, 6, 9, 12) AND toDayOfMonth(date) BETWEEN 15 AND 21) AS is_expiry
    FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
    WHERE ticker = 'SPY'
      AND date >= '2016-01-01'
      AND date <  today()
      AND toDayOfWeek(date) = 5
      AND toFloat64(open) > 0
)
SELECT
    toString(y)                                  AS year,
    round(avgIf(abs_move_pct, is_expiry = 1), 2) AS expiry_friday_move_pct,
    round(avgIf(abs_move_pct, is_expiry = 0), 2) AS other_friday_move_pct,
    countIf(is_expiry = 1)                       AS expiry_session_count
FROM fridays
GROUP BY y
HAVING countIf(is_expiry = 1) >= 2
   AND countIf(is_expiry = 0) >= 2
ORDER BY y

The panel put the two averages side by side, year by year, from 2016 reach 2025, covering 10 years. For 2025, the 4 quarterly expiration Fridays average 0.58 percent from open to close, compared with 0.71 percent for that year ordinary Fridays.

Two things wey matter need stay separate. Heavy volume record how many shares change hands, and e no carry sign. Also, the figures above na absolute moves. Dem describe size and no talk about which direction any single session go. Session wey trade twice its usual volume fit close only few basis points from where e open. Basis point na one hundredth of a percentage point.

FAQ

Na quadruple witching or triple witching?

For US markets, na triple witching. The fourth leg, single stock futures, stop trading for United States in 2020 when OneChicago wind down. Quadruple witching still correct for venues outside US wey continue to list single stock futures.

Wetin be the fourth witching?

Single stock futures: contracts to settle the price of one company shares on fixed future date, instead of the level of an index. For US, dem list am mainly on OneChicago, and dem stop trading for 2020.

When triple witching dey happen?

Na the third Friday of March, June, September and December. If that Friday fall on exchange holiday, expiration move to the Thursday before am. The dated list dey for options expiration calendar for 2026.

Triple witching dey move market?

Volume dey run well above ordinary Friday, especially for closing auction, as the panels above show. Size of session move and its direction na separate measurements. The yearly comparison put expiration Fridays within the same range as ordinary Fridays.

Why plenty articles still dey say quadruple witching?

Dem write most of dem before 2020, and dem never update dem after single stock futures leave US markets. Check the article date against 2020 and the difference go clear within few seconds.

Every panel here come with the exact SQL underneath am. Expand one to see how dem count one number. To run the same comparison on another symbol or different expiration Friday, ask am with plain English for the Strasmore terminal.