Contracts that traded once, and contracts still trading at expiry
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 2026-10-07, from What Breaks an Options Backtest.
| month | cohort | contracts | traded_to_expiry_pct | single_day_pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-09-01 | Sep 2021 | 10925 | 53 | 5.3 |
| 2021-10-01 | Oct 2021 | 3750 | 41.2 | 7.8 |
| 2021-11-01 | Nov 2021 | 3478 | 41.1 | 8.5 |
| 2021-12-01 | Dec 2021 | 3505 | 46.1 | 8.5 |
| 2022-01-01 | Jan 2022 | 3640 | 48.4 | 7.3 |
| 2022-02-01 | Feb 2022 | 3688 | 47.2 | 12.8 |
| 2022-03-01 | Mar 2022 | 3824 | 38.9 | 9.4 |
| 2022-04-01 | Apr 2022 | 3309 | 43.9 | 6.9 |
| 2022-05-01 | May 2022 | 4458 | 48 | 7.3 |
| 2022-06-01 | Jun 2022 | 4174 | 46.8 | 6.5 |
| 2022-07-01 | Jul 2022 | 3480 | 49 | 5.9 |
| 2022-08-01 | Aug 2022 | 3042 | 35 | 9.1 |
| 2022-09-01 | Sep 2022 | 4077 | 51.5 | 5.2 |
| 2022-10-01 | Oct 2022 | 3168 | 42 | 5.2 |
| 2022-11-01 | Nov 2022 | 3590 | 56.6 | 18.3 |
| 2022-12-01 | Dec 2022 | 4339 | 52.8 | 14.6 |
| 2023-01-01 | Jan 2023 | 4600 | 55.9 | 9.5 |
| 2023-02-01 | Feb 2023 | 4047 | 54.1 | 15.1 |
| 2023-03-01 | Mar 2023 | 5067 | 56.8 | 13.3 |
| 2023-04-01 | Apr 2023 | 3803 | 57.4 | 11.1 |
| 2023-05-01 | May 2023 | 3988 | 53.8 | 12.1 |
| 2023-06-01 | Jun 2023 | 4375 | 53 | 15.6 |
| 2023-07-01 | Jul 2023 | 5051 | 55.5 | 13.1 |
| 2023-08-01 | Aug 2023 | 5107 | 55.3 | 9.1 |
| 2023-09-01 | Sep 2023 | 4224 | 56.4 | 15 |
| 2023-10-01 | Oct 2023 | 4561 | 47.6 | 11.8 |
| 2023-11-01 | Nov 2023 | 4717 | 50.9 | 11.4 |
| 2023-12-01 | Dec 2023 | 3826 | 55.3 | 14.6 |
| 2024-01-01 | Jan 2024 | 4408 | 58.6 | 11.8 |
| 2024-02-01 | Feb 2024 | 4105 | 59 | 13.8 |
| 2024-03-01 | Mar 2024 | 4048 | 52.3 | 14.2 |
| 2024-04-01 | Apr 2024 | 3854 | 62.4 | 11.5 |
| 2024-05-01 | May 2024 | 4247 | 52.2 | 11 |
| 2024-06-01 | Jun 2024 | 3881 | 48 | 13.9 |
| 2024-07-01 | Jul 2024 | 4669 | 57.3 | 10.8 |
| 2024-08-01 | Aug 2024 | 5986 | 50.1 | 16.5 |
| 2024-09-01 | Sep 2024 | 4893 | 54.5 | 13.9 |
| 2024-10-01 | Oct 2024 | 4904 | 55.4 | 11 |
| 2024-11-01 | Nov 2024 | 4594 | 54.8 | 10.4 |
| 2024-12-01 | Dec 2024 | 4194 | 44.4 | 11.9 |
| 2025-01-01 | Jan 2025 | 4432 | 57.9 | 11 |
| 2025-02-01 | Feb 2025 | 4132 | 57.6 | 10.7 |
| 2025-03-01 | Mar 2025 | 5566 | 64 | 7.7 |
| 2025-04-01 | Apr 2025 | 8263 | 50.2 | 12.6 |
| 2025-05-01 | May 2025 | 5378 | 57.7 | 8.9 |
| 2025-06-01 | Jun 2025 | 3934 | 58.3 | 10.3 |
| 2025-07-01 | Jul 2025 | 4446 | 63.2 | 8.8 |
| 2025-08-01 | Aug 2025 | 4123 | 58.3 | 9.8 |
| 2025-09-01 | Sep 2025 | 5737 | 57.1 | 10.3 |
| 2025-10-01 | Oct 2025 | 5332 | 65.8 | 9 |
| 2025-11-01 | Nov 2025 | 4605 | 51.7 | 11.8 |
| 2025-12-01 | Dec 2025 | 4302 | 53.4 | 12.9 |
| 2026-01-01 | Jan 2026 | 5146 | 60.3 | 11.8 |
| 2026-02-01 | Feb 2026 | 4764 | 56.3 | 12.6 |
| 2026-03-01 | Mar 2026 | 5973 | 54.8 | 9.9 |
| 2026-04-01 | Apr 2026 | 5664 | 60.3 | 10.5 |
| 2026-05-01 | May 2026 | 5713 | 59 | 10 |
- Rows × columns
- 57 × 5
- Period covered
- to
- Computed
- Completeness
- No missing values
- Source
- US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
- Licence
- Strasmore terms · free, no signup
What each column holds
| Column | Type | Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
month |
date | 2021-09-01 to 2026-05-01 | |
cohort |
text | 57 distinct values (Apr 2022, Apr 2023, Apr 2024…) | |
contracts |
number | 3,042 to 10,925 | count |
traded_to_expiry_pct |
number | 35 to 65.8 | percent |
single_day_pct |
number | 5.2 to 18.3 | percent |
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 , 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
toString(toStartOfMonth(first_seen)) AS month,
formatDateTime(toStartOfMonth(first_seen), '%b %Y') AS cohort,
count() AS contracts,
round(100 * countIf(min_dte <= 1) / count(), 1) AS traded_to_expiry_pct,
round(100 * countIf(observed_days = 1) / count(), 1) AS single_day_pct
FROM
(
SELECT
ticker,
min(date) AS first_seen,
min(days_to_expiry) AS min_dte,
count() AS observed_days
FROM global_markets.options_greeks
WHERE underlying_symbol = 'SPY'
AND date >= '2021-09-01'
AND date < '2026-09-01'
AND expiration_date < '2026-09-01'
AND volume > 0
GROUP BY ticker
)
WHERE first_seen < '2026-06-01'
GROUP BY month, cohort
ORDER BY month
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