OPEX Week Options Data: What to Measure Before Trading

OPEX week attracts attention because open interest, gamma exposure, roll activity, and short-dated positioning can concentrate around a small set of dates. The date itself is only the starting point.

Before trading an OPEX idea, the better question is what changed in the option surface and whether the contracts are liquid enough for the strategy you want to run.

Start with the calendar

Monthly OpEx is normally the third Friday. Quarterly OpEx happens in March, June, September, and December. Holidays can move the standard date earlier.

For example, April 2026 monthly OpEx was Friday, April 17, 2026. The next standard monthly equity and ETF options expiration after that is Friday, May 15, 2026. June 2026 standard monthly OpEx moves to Thursday, June 18 because June 19 is a market holiday.

Use the next OpEx date, monthly OpEx dates, and quarterly OpEx dates pages for planning.

Then measure the surface

For a data workflow, measure at least five things:

• listed expirations for the exact ticker
• open interest by expiration and strike
• bid/ask spread and displayed size
• trade activity and print size
• Greeks and implied volatility near the target strikes

Open interest alone is not enough. A strike can have visible open interest and still be unattractive if the current quote is wide or stale.

Use API-backed dates

Calendar pages are useful for human planning. API-backed listed expirations are better for code.

curl "https://api.cutemarkets.com/v1/tickers/expirations/SPY/" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

After selecting the date, request the chain and sort contracts by the fields that matter for the strategy.

curl "https://api.cutemarkets.com/v1/options/chain/SPY/?expiration_date=2026-05-15&limit=100" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Product link

OPEX-week workflows belong between utility SEO and real data products. Start from options expiration data, then add open interest, Greeks, quotes, and trades.

The calendar tells you when to look. The option data tells you whether anything is worth trading.