Expiration Date

The day on which an option expired (on the 3rd Friday of the
expiration month). After that date, the contract is no longer
valid and you lose the right to buy or sell the stocks at the
specified price.

Usually, you could find the available options for the current
and next month as well as specific future months. There are
3 fixed expiration cycles available with a four-month interval:

• January, April, July and October
• February, May, August and November
• March, June, September and December

Every stock has a corresponding cycle of months that they offer
options. It is important to understand how the exchanges decide
what expiration months are available for each stock.

However, there is a change by http://www.cboe.com on this cycle
since options trading has gained in popularity. Please refer to
the site above for more information.

The option expiration cycle for stocks may be confusing, but knowing
them will give you an edge to success in options trading.