Strike Prices and Expiration Dates: Strike Grids, Weeklys, Monthlies, and LEAPS

The strike price is the fixed price at which an option lets you buy (call) or sell (put) the underlying shares, and the expiration date is the last day that right exists. For listed options, you can’t pick any strike or date you like: the exchanges list a standard grid of strikes and a standard calendar of expirations, with monthly options in the US normally expiring on the third Friday of the month.

In short: US exchanges list strikes at set intervals, traditionally $2.50 apart for strikes up to $25, $5 apart from $25 to $200, and $10 apart above $200, with special programs allowing tighter $1 or $0.50 intervals for many stocks and ETFs. Standard monthly options expire on the third Friday of the month (the preceding business day if that Friday is a holiday). Many underlyings also have weekly expirations, broad index products like SPX have expirations every weekday, and LEAPS run up to about three years out.

The misconception: “I’ll buy the option I want”

New traders sometimes want “a call at $51.37 that expires next Wednesday.” Listed options don’t work that way. Exchanges standardize strikes and dates so that every contract with the same underlying, type, strike, and expiration is identical and interchangeable. That standardization is what lets thousands of people trade the same contract and lets The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) guarantee it. The price of the convenience is that you choose from a menu.

How strikes are listed

The standard intervals

Under Cboe’s rules on strike price intervals (as summarized by OCC’s equity options product specifications), the default spacing is:

Strike price	Standard interval
$25 or below	$2.50
Above $25 through $200	$5
Above $200	$10

Tighter strikes through listing programs

Those are the defaults, and many popular underlyings have much tighter grids through exchange programs:

The $1 Strike Price Interval Program allows $1 intervals for designated classes between $1 and $50, subject to conditions in the exchange rules.
A $0.50 strike program covers some low-priced stocks between $0.50 and $5.50.
Very actively traded ETFs and some large stocks have $1 strikes across a wide range, even at higher prices, under separate rules.

The exact rules are detailed and change through exchange rule filings, so the practical answer is: look at the chain. On a liquid stock trading near $50, you will often see strikes at every $1, or every $2.50.

Where strikes are placed

Exchanges list strikes around the current price and add new ones as the stock moves, so there are always strikes near the money. A stock that rallies from $50 to $80 will get new strikes listed above $80 over time. Strikes far from the current price exist mostly in longer-dated expirations.

Strikes can also be adjusted after corporate actions. After a 2-for-1 stock split, for example, a $50 strike option on 100 shares becomes two $25 strike options on 100 shares each. This is covered in how options markets work.

Choosing a strike changes the bet

Using hypothetical Maple Widgets Inc. at $50, here are model premiums for calls with about 60 days left (Black-Scholes, assumed 30% volatility and 4% rates):

Strike	Call premium	Contract cost	Breakeven at expiry	Rise needed
$45	$5.85	$585	$50.85	1.7%
$50	$2.60	$260	$52.60	5.2%
$55	$0.85	$85	$55.85	11.7%
$60	$0.20	$20	$60.20	20.4%

The lower the strike, the more the call costs and the less the stock has to move to break even. The higher the strike, the cheaper the call and the larger the move required. Moneyness, the relationship between strike and stock price, is the subject of in the money vs out of the money.

How expiration dates work

Monthly options and the third Friday

Standard monthly US equity options expire on the third Friday of the expiration month. That is written into OCC’s By-Laws: for options expiring on or after February 1, 2015, the expiration date is the third Friday of the month. Before then, standard options technically expired on the Saturday after the third Friday, even though trading ended on Friday.

If the third Friday is an exchange holiday, expiration moves to the preceding business day. A dated example: in June 2026, the third Friday was June 19, the Juneteenth holiday, so the June monthly options expired on Thursday, June 18, 2026.

Some upcoming third Fridays, for reference:

Month	Third Friday
November 2026	November 20, 2026
December 2026	December 18, 2026
January 2027	January 15, 2027
January 2028	January 21, 2028

Always check the exchange or OCC expiration calendar for holidays.

When trading ends

For most US equity and ETF options, the last trading day is the expiration day, and trading ends around the 4:00 p.m. Eastern stock market close (a few index and ETF products have slightly later closing times). There are bigger exceptions. Standard monthly SPX index options, for example, stop trading the day before expiration and settle on prices from the opening of trading on expiration day. That difference matters, and it is explained in American vs European options.

After the close on expiration day, holders still have until 5:30 p.m. Eastern under FINRA Rule 2360 to decide whether to exercise or not, though brokers often set an earlier cut-off. See how exercise and assignment work.

Weekly and daily expirations

Cboe launched Weeklys on October 28, 2005, initially on the S&P 500 (SPX) and S&P 100 (OEX) indexes. Weeklys on ETFs and individual stocks followed in mid-2010. Today many stocks and ETFs have options expiring every Friday. In exchange rules this is the Short Term Option Series Program.

For the most heavily traded products, expirations are even more frequent. SPX options have expirations every weekday, and some of the largest ETFs also have daily expirations. These very short-dated contracts, including ones that expire the day they are traded, are covered in zero-DTE options explained.

Quarterly and end-of-month expirations

Some index and ETF options also have quarterly expirations (the last trading day of a calendar quarter) and end-of-month expirations. Which ones exist depends on the product; the chain shows them.

LEAPS: long-dated options

LEAPS (Long-Term Equity AnticiPation Securities) are long-dated options. Cboe introduced them in 1990. Per Cboe’s product specifications, equity LEAPS can be listed up to 39 months from the date of first listing, and equity LEAPS expire only in January, on the third Friday. They work exactly like any other option; the only difference is the time horizon.

Because time value grows with time, LEAPS cost much more than short-dated options at the same strike. Under the same model assumptions as the table above, a two-year at-the-money call on a $50 stock comes out around $10, roughly four times the $2.60 two-month call.

Reading an option symbol

US options carry a standardized symbol (the OCC Options Symbology format) that encodes all four contract terms:

MAPL 261218C00055000

MAPL: the underlying’s root symbol (hypothetical here).
261218: expiration date, in year-month-day form: December 18, 2026.
C: call (P for put).
00055000: strike price times 1,000, so $55.000.

Brokers usually display a friendlier version, such as “MAPL Dec 18 ‘26 55 Call”, but the underlying information is the same.

In Canada: the Montréal Exchange

Canadian equity options trade on the Montréal Exchange (MX) and clear through the Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation (CDCC). According to MX’s equity options specifications:

Each contract represents 100 shares.
Options are American style and physically settled.
Monthly options stop trading on the third Friday of the expiry month (the preceding business day if it is not a business day), and expiration day equals the last trading day.
The cycle includes at minimum the nearest four consecutive months plus the next four quarterly months (March, June, September, December), and MX may list expiries up to two years out, plus an annual January expiry.
Weekly options, where listed, stop trading on the Friday after the week they are listed.
At least five strikes are listed bracketing the current share price.

Canadian strike intervals follow MX rules and differ from US ones, so check the MX product page for a given class.

What can go wrong

Misreading the expiration. A holiday can move expiration a day earlier. A weekly and a monthly with similar dates are different contracts.
Assuming the last trading day is the same for every product. AM-settled index options stop trading the day before they settle.
Choosing strikes by price alone. Cheaper, far out-of-the-money strikes need much larger moves to pay off.
Thin markets in odd strikes and far dates. Long-dated and far-from-the-money options often have wide bid-ask spreads and little open interest.

Common questions

Can I pick an expiration that isn’t listed?

Not for standard listed options. Some exchanges list FLEX options, which let institutional and some other participants customize strikes and dates, but they work differently and are not what a typical broker chain shows.

Does a longer expiration mean less risk?

It means more time for the stock to move, and slower time decay per day, but a higher premium at stake. A longer-dated option can still expire worthless, and because it costs more, the dollar loss can be larger.

The takeaway

Strikes come from a standardized grid, set by exchange rules and listing programs, and expirations follow a standardized calendar anchored on the third Friday. Weeklys, dailies, quarterlies, and LEAPS add more choices. The strike sets what the stock has to do; the expiration sets how long it has to do it.