Triple witching hour
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Please see Triple witching day
Triple witching hour is the final hour of the stock market trading session on the third Friday of every March, June, September, and December. Those days are the expiry of three kinds of derivatives,
- Stock index futures.
- Stock index options.
- Stock options.
The simultaneous expirations often set off heavy trading of options, futures and the underlying stocks, which can cause large fluctuations or volatility in the value of their underlying stocks.
With the introduction of single stock futures expiring on the same days, triple witching has become quadruple witching.
An event that occurs when the contracts for stock index futures, stock index options and stock options all expire on the same day. Triple witching days happen four times a year: the third Friday of March, June, September and December. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as "Freaky Friday".