How a new option chain widens: strikes and expirations traded
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 2026-09-09, from When Do Options Start Trading After an IPO?.
| weeks_since_first_option | median_strikes_traded | median_expirations_traded |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 9 | 4 |
| 1 | 10 | 4 |
| 2 | 10 | 4 |
| 3 | 11 | 4 |
| 4 | 11 | 4 |
| 5 | 11 | 4 |
| 6 | 12 | 5 |
| 7 | 12 | 5 |
| 8 | 12 | 5 |
| 9 | 12 | 5 |
| 10 | 12 | 5 |
| 11 | 12 | 5 |
- Rows × columns
- 12 × 3
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
weeks_since_first_option |
number | 0 to 11 | |
median_strikes_traded |
number | 9 to 12 | |
median_expirations_traded |
number | 4 to 5 |
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.
the exact SQL behind every number
WITH
listings AS (
SELECT
ticker,
min(listing_date) AS listed_on
FROM global_markets.stocks_ipos
WHERE listing_date >= '2024-01-01'
AND listing_date < today()
AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
GROUP BY ticker
),
debut AS (
SELECT
a.ticker AS symbol,
min(a.date) AS debut_date,
argMin(toFloat64(a.close) * toFloat64(a.volume), a.date) AS debut_turnover
FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs AS a
INNER JOIN listings AS l ON l.ticker = a.ticker
WHERE a.date >= '2024-01-01'
AND a.date >= l.listed_on
GROUP BY a.ticker
),
cohort AS (
SELECT
symbol,
debut_date
FROM debut
ORDER BY debut_turnover DESC
LIMIT 40
),
first_option AS (
SELECT
g.underlying_symbol AS symbol,
min(g.date) AS option_date
FROM global_markets.options_greeks AS g
INNER JOIN cohort AS c ON c.symbol = g.underlying_symbol
WHERE g.date >= '2024-01-01'
AND g.volume > 0
AND g.date >= c.debut_date
GROUP BY g.underlying_symbol
),
daily_chain AS (
SELECT
g.underlying_symbol AS symbol,
g.date AS d,
uniqExact(g.strike_price) AS strikes,
uniqExact(g.expiration_date) AS expiries
FROM global_markets.options_greeks AS g
INNER JOIN first_option AS f ON f.symbol = g.underlying_symbol
WHERE g.volume > 0
AND g.date >= f.option_date
AND dateDiff('day', f.option_date, g.date) < 84
GROUP BY symbol, d
)
SELECT
intDiv(dateDiff('day', f.option_date, c.d), 7) AS weeks_since_first_option,
toUInt32(round(quantileDeterministic(toFloat64(c.strikes), cityHash64(c.symbol)))) AS median_strikes_traded,
toUInt32(round(quantileDeterministic(toFloat64(c.expiries), cityHash64(c.symbol)))) AS median_expirations_traded
FROM daily_chain AS c
INNER JOIN first_option AS f ON f.symbol = c.symbol
GROUP BY weeks_since_first_option
ORDER BY weeks_since_first_option
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