The stock market was relatively calm Friday ahead of “triple witching“ — the simultaneous expiration of individual stock options, stock-index futures and stock-index options.
Triple witching occurs on the third Friday of March, June, September and December. The event is also known as “quadruple witching,“ taking into account the expiration of single-stock futures. Trade around options expiration can be volatile, particularly in the final hour of the session, analysts noted.
Friday marks the largest triple-witching day “in memory with $3.5 trillion in options set to expire with more near-the-money options maturing than at any time since 2019,“ said Louis Navellier, founder of Navellier & Associates, in a note.
The growing popularity of options is seen putting additional focus on the quarterly expiration events.
“Option influence has grown dramatically since the pandemic began and has been exaggerating equity movements in both directions. Today could be especially colorful in this arena,“ Navellier said.
Stocks were higher in afternoon trading, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.80% sporting a gain of around 58 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 SPX, +1.17% rose 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +2.05% jumped more than 1%.
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