Increased Trading Volume and Volatility during OpEx Week
OpEx week, short for options expiration week, is a crucial period in the trading calendar that often stirs market volatility and adds a layer of unpredictability to financial markets.
- Occurs monthly (typically the third Friday of every month)
- Options contracts for stocks, indexes, and futures are due to expire
- As contracts near their expiration, the dynamics of supply and demand can become more intense, leading to fluctuations in the market
- One of the most immediate effects of OpEx week on the markets is the increase in trading volume
The Impact of OpEx on Underlying Assets
As contracts near their expiration, traders who hold positions in these contracts are forced to make decisions:
- Roll over their contracts to a future date
- Close out their positions
- If they hold in-the-money options, exercise them
This flurry of activity often leads to increased trading volume, which can add liquidity to the markets but can also heighten market volatility. This volatility can particularly impact the underlying assets of the options contracts.
Pinning Effect: A Unique Phenomenon during OpEx Week
Market volatility during OpEx week can also be compounded by the phenomenon known as “pinning”:
- Refers to the tendency of an underlying security’s price to gravitate towards a strike price as options contracts near expiration
- Occurs due to the market participants’ trading activity as they seek to offset their positions, resulting in the security’s price often getting “pinned” to a strike price
- This effect can lead to considerable price swings, especially for individual stocks or ETFs with substantial open options contracts
Gamma Exposure and its Role in OpEx Week
Another important consideration during OpEx week is gamma exposure:
- As options near expiration, the gamma increases significantly
- Gamma is a measure of how much the delta changes for each one-point move in the price of the underlying asset
- This increased gamma exposure can result in large price swings for the underlying asset, as option market makers who delta-hedge their positions must buy or sell more of the underlying asset to remain delta neutral
Quadruple Witching Days: The Pinnacle of OpEx Volatility
A notable example of these effects occurred during the infamous “quadruple witching” days:
- Four days each year when stock index futures, stock index options, stock options, and single stock futures all expire at once
- These days often see dramatically increased trading volume and market volatility due to the simultaneous expiration of these four types of contracts
OpEx Week: A Blessing or a Curse for Traders and Investors?
While OpEx week can cause heightened market volatility, it does not necessarily lead to adverse market conditions:
- Traders who are aware of these dynamics can take advantage of the increased trading volume and volatility to profit from short-term price fluctuations
- Conversely, long-term investors can often ignore the increased volatility during OpEx week as the long-term performance of their investments will not be significantly impacted by these short-term fluctuations
Understanding the dynamics at play during OpEx week is crucial for navigating the financial markets, and it provides traders and investors the ability to potentially use these conditions to their advantage.
