Quad Witching September 2026: Expiry Day

Well, it's the third Friday of September, so it's quad witching. Strictly speaking it's triple witching these days, since single-stock futures stopped trading in the US back in 2020. Nobody calls it that though, so quad witching it is.

If you're newer to this, here's what it is. Four times a year, the quarterly index futures expire on the same day as the monthly stock and index options. That means a lot of positions have to be closed, rolled or settled on the same day, and you see it in the volume. Citadel Securities put the options exposure expiring today at over $6 trillion back in late August, and expected that to grow, possibly past June's $7.7 trillion.
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Before anyone gets excited: a big number doesn't mean a big move. Most of it is notional, plenty will expire worthless, and a lot of the futures roll was done earlier in the week anyway. Quad witching has no directional bias. What it does change is how price behaves at certain times of the day.

​Which markets does quad witching affect?

• US indices: S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow. This is where most of the expiring positions are.
• European indices: FTSE 100, DAX and Euro Stoxx 50 contracts expire today too, each at its own time.
• Individual stocks: particularly the big names with heavy options open interest, and anything in the rebalance.
• FX: not directly. If USDJPY moves today, that's the BoJ, not the witching. Keep the two separate in your head.

What time is quad witching today?

UK time, with New York time in brackets:

• UK time, with New York time in brackets:
• 07:30 (02:30): BoJ press conference. Watch the yen.
• 10:10 (05:10): FTSE 100 expiry auction starts. It usually wraps up by about 10:15, but it can run as late as 10:29.
• 10:50–11:00 (05:50–06:00): Euro Stoxx 50 settlement window.
• 12:00 (07:00): DAX expiry auction.
• 14:30 (09:30): US open. The quarterly S&P, Nasdaq and Dow futures settle off the opening prints, so the first half hour can be messy.
• 20:50 (15:50): closing imbalance figures come out.

If we get a proper move, I'd expect it at the US open or in the last hour. The middle of the US session often goes quiet, sometimes almost stuck, as price gets pulled towards strikes with a lot of open interest. That's called pinning, and it makes for a frustrating afternoon if you're waiting for fireworks.

How I'll approach the witching for trading

I won't be trading the witching for its own sake. A spike at the open that doesn't hold is a typical expiry-day move, and I'd rather not be on the wrong side of it. Stops get tagged more on these days than most, so either give trades more room or trade smaller.

The more useful information may come next week. Once all the hedging rolls off, the market is free to move. If price is still heading the way the Fed and BoJ pointed it on Monday and Tuesday, that tells you far more than anything on today's chart. If it snaps back, some of this week's move was probably just positioning.
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One practical note for CFD traders: check your broker's rollover on index CFDs. The price can jump when they switch to the December contract, and it's easy to mistake that for a real move.

Good luck today, and enjoy the weekend.