It has long been called Triple Witching Day, a major quarterly expiration of stock index futures, stock index options, and individual stock options. It occurs on the third Friday of the last month of a quarter. It's a clever reference to the witches of mythology and literature, which often came in threes, but never fours. Then some years ago an exchange came out with a new product, and asked the media to refer to Quadruple Witching Day. Blah! Blasphemy! Literary Ignorance!
That new product has essentially dwindled to almost nothing due to lack of demand. Of course there are actually thousands of financial instruments that expire on Triple Witching Day. Yet some in the media still start the term with Quadruple. I and those in the know will always call it Triple Witching Day, and hope that everyone else here will do the same.
Finally to lafrisbee's question. Generally, more TSLA options expire on a Triple Witching Day than on a typical Friday, including the monthly expirations on the third Fridays of other months. On a Friday, the big writers (mainly hedge funds and market makers) of options often try to nudge the TSLA share price toward a strike price in which options interest is high (MaxPain). This is done to preserve most of the option premiums they have received. It can shut out many of the retail buyers of options. There is a cost in manipulating the share price, although much of that can be undone on the following Monday. But the options cannot be undone, since they expire on Friday. The manipulators expect to make a profit, even if it is not huge.
Last edited:
