Options bid-ask spreads by product: median basis points, July 2, 2026 regular hours

Name: Options bid-ask spreads by product: median basis points, July 2, 2026 regular hours
Creator: Strasmore
Published: 2026-08-14
License: https://www.strasmore.com/terms/

Answered against 22 years of US equities and 12 years of US options data and published with the query that produced it. This result is stored as of 2026-08-14, from How Much Does It Cost to Trade Options?.

as of 2026-08-14 ranking 5×4read in context →

Options bid-ask spreads by product: median basis points, July 2, 2026 regular hours — 5 rows by 4 columns, computed 2026-08-14 from US exchange, SIP and OPRA data.
root	quote_updates_millions	median_spread_bps	median_width_cents
GLD	19.9	786.75	30
IWM	103.5	130.72	8
QQQ	359.7	123.71	11
SPY	462.9	80.97	4
TSLA	184.9	309.93	70

Rows × columns: 5 × 4
Computed: 2026-08-14
Completeness: No missing values
Source: US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
Licence: Strasmore terms · free, no signup
Formats: JSON · CSV · the SQL below

What each column holds

Column definitions for Options bid-ask spreads by product: median basis points, July 2, 2026 regular hours, derived from the stored result.
Column	Type	Range
`root`	text	5 distinct values (GLD, IWM, QQQ…)
`quote_updates_millions`	number	19.9 to 462.9
`median_spread_bps`	number	80.97 to 786.75
`median_width_cents`	number	4 to 70

Computed from Strasmore's warehouse of US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data. Equity prices are delayed; options greeks and implied volatility are end-of-day. This result is stored, not recomputed on load — it is exactly the numbers that were returned on 2026-08-14, and the query below is what returned them.

Run it yourself

This is the exact query behind the result above. Change a ticker, a date or a column and run it against the warehouse — no account, no key. The no-signup tier is smaller than the one this page was computed on; a query that reaches past it comes back saying which plan runs it.

SELECT
    root,
    round(count() / 1e6, 1) AS quote_updates_millions,
    round(quantileDeterministic(0.5)(spread_bps, det), 2) AS median_spread_bps,
    round(quantileDeterministic(0.5)(width_cents, det), 2) AS median_width_cents
FROM (
    SELECT 'SPY' AS root, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) / ((toFloat64(ask_price) + toFloat64(bid_price)) / 2) * 10000 AS spread_bps, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) * 100 AS width_cents, cityHash64(ticker, sip_timestamp) AS det
    FROM global_markets.cache_options_quotes
    WHERE sip_timestamp >= '2026-07-02 13:30:00' AND sip_timestamp < '2026-07-02 20:00:00'
      AND ticker >= 'O:SPY26' AND ticker < 'O:SPY27'
      AND bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 'QQQ' AS root, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) / ((toFloat64(ask_price) + toFloat64(bid_price)) / 2) * 10000 AS spread_bps, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) * 100 AS width_cents, cityHash64(ticker, sip_timestamp) AS det
    FROM global_markets.cache_options_quotes
    WHERE sip_timestamp >= '2026-07-02 13:30:00' AND sip_timestamp < '2026-07-02 20:00:00'
      AND ticker >= 'O:QQQ26' AND ticker < 'O:QQQ27'
      AND bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 'IWM' AS root, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) / ((toFloat64(ask_price) + toFloat64(bid_price)) / 2) * 10000 AS spread_bps, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) * 100 AS width_cents, cityHash64(ticker, sip_timestamp) AS det
    FROM global_markets.cache_options_quotes
    WHERE sip_timestamp >= '2026-07-02 13:30:00' AND sip_timestamp < '2026-07-02 20:00:00'
      AND ticker >= 'O:IWM26' AND ticker < 'O:IWM27'
      AND bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 'GLD' AS root, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) / ((toFloat64(ask_price) + toFloat64(bid_price)) / 2) * 10000 AS spread_bps, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) * 100 AS width_cents, cityHash64(ticker, sip_timestamp) AS det
    FROM global_markets.cache_options_quotes
    WHERE sip_timestamp >= '2026-07-02 13:30:00' AND sip_timestamp < '2026-07-02 20:00:00'
      AND ticker >= 'O:GLD26' AND ticker < 'O:GLD27'
      AND bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 'TSLA' AS root, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) / ((toFloat64(ask_price) + toFloat64(bid_price)) / 2) * 10000 AS spread_bps, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) * 100 AS width_cents, cityHash64(ticker, sip_timestamp) AS det
    FROM global_markets.cache_options_quotes
    WHERE sip_timestamp >= '2026-07-02 13:30:00' AND sip_timestamp < '2026-07-02 20:00:00'
      AND ticker >= 'O:TSLA26' AND ticker < 'O:TSLA27'
      AND bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price
)
GROUP BY root
ORDER BY root ASC

SQL to run

SELECT
    root,
    round(count() / 1e6, 1) AS quote_updates_millions,
    round(quantileDeterministic(0.5)(spread_bps, det), 2) AS median_spread_bps,
    round(quantileDeterministic(0.5)(width_cents, det), 2) AS median_width_cents
FROM (
    SELECT 'SPY' AS root, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) / ((toFloat64(ask_price) + toFloat64(bid_price)) / 2) * 10000 AS spread_bps, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) * 100 AS width_cents, cityHash64(ticker, sip_timestamp) AS det
    FROM global_markets.cache_options_quotes
    WHERE sip_timestamp >= '2026-07-02 13:30:00' AND sip_timestamp < '2026-07-02 20:00:00'
      AND ticker >= 'O:SPY26' AND ticker < 'O:SPY27'
      AND bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 'QQQ' AS root, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) / ((toFloat64(ask_price) + toFloat64(bid_price)) / 2) * 10000 AS spread_bps, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) * 100 AS width_cents, cityHash64(ticker, sip_timestamp) AS det
    FROM global_markets.cache_options_quotes
    WHERE sip_timestamp >= '2026-07-02 13:30:00' AND sip_timestamp < '2026-07-02 20:00:00'
      AND ticker >= 'O:QQQ26' AND ticker < 'O:QQQ27'
      AND bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 'IWM' AS root, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) / ((toFloat64(ask_price) + toFloat64(bid_price)) / 2) * 10000 AS spread_bps, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) * 100 AS width_cents, cityHash64(ticker, sip_timestamp) AS det
    FROM global_markets.cache_options_quotes
    WHERE sip_timestamp >= '2026-07-02 13:30:00' AND sip_timestamp < '2026-07-02 20:00:00'
      AND ticker >= 'O:IWM26' AND ticker < 'O:IWM27'
      AND bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 'GLD' AS root, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) / ((toFloat64(ask_price) + toFloat64(bid_price)) / 2) * 10000 AS spread_bps, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) * 100 AS width_cents, cityHash64(ticker, sip_timestamp) AS det
    FROM global_markets.cache_options_quotes
    WHERE sip_timestamp >= '2026-07-02 13:30:00' AND sip_timestamp < '2026-07-02 20:00:00'
      AND ticker >= 'O:GLD26' AND ticker < 'O:GLD27'
      AND bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 'TSLA' AS root, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) / ((toFloat64(ask_price) + toFloat64(bid_price)) / 2) * 10000 AS spread_bps, (toFloat64(ask_price) - toFloat64(bid_price)) * 100 AS width_cents, cityHash64(ticker, sip_timestamp) AS det
    FROM global_markets.cache_options_quotes
    WHERE sip_timestamp >= '2026-07-02 13:30:00' AND sip_timestamp < '2026-07-02 20:00:00'
      AND ticker >= 'O:TSLA26' AND ticker < 'O:TSLA27'
      AND bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price
)
GROUP BY root
ORDER BY root ASC

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