Weekly Options Expiration Calendar
A technical 2026 Friday-cycle calendar for weekly options workflows. Use it to distinguish weekly expirations from standard monthly and quarterly OpEx dates, then confirm the currently listed dates for the exact underlying with the API.
Weekly pattern
Most Fridays
Active ETF and equity underlyings often list Friday weekly expirations, but listed depth varies by ticker.
April 2026 example
Apr 2, 10, 17, 24
Good Friday moves the first April 2026 Friday cycle to Thursday, April 2.
Monthly overlap
Third Friday
The third Friday is the standard monthly cycle, not an ordinary weekly date.
Classification
Weekly, monthly, and quarterly are labels over listed dates
A weekly expiration is best defined by exclusion: it is a listed short-dated expiration that is not the standard monthly cycle. The standard monthly cycle is the third Friday of the month, adjusted earlier for market holidays. Quarterly OpEx is the monthly cycle in March, June, September, and December. Keeping these labels separate makes downstream research cleaner because each label can carry different liquidity and positioning behavior.
This is a calendar-first reference for planning scanners, UI date pickers, and model windows. It is not the final source of truth for a production request. Before requesting an option chain, call the listed-expirations endpoint for the ticker, because different underlyings can have different weekly listing depth and some index products use non-Friday short-dated cycles.
April 2026 weekly options expiration dates
April 2026 includes a holiday-adjusted weekly date, so it is broken out before the full-year table.
| Date | Cycle | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, April 2, 2026 | Weekly | Moved from April 3, 2026 for a market holiday. |
| Friday, April 10, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, April 17, 2026 | Monthly | Standard monthly OpEx |
| Friday, April 24, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
2026 Friday-cycle reference
The table labels monthly and quarterly overlaps so weekly scanners can avoid treating all Fridays as equivalent.
| Date | Cycle | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, January 2, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, January 9, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, January 16, 2026 | Monthly | Standard monthly OpEx |
| Friday, January 23, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, January 30, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, February 6, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, February 13, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, February 20, 2026 | Monthly | Standard monthly OpEx |
| Friday, February 27, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, March 6, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, March 13, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, March 20, 2026 | Quarterly | Quarterly OpEx |
| Friday, March 27, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Thursday, April 2, 2026 | Weekly | Moved from April 3, 2026 for a market holiday. |
| Friday, April 10, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, April 17, 2026 | Monthly | Standard monthly OpEx |
| Friday, April 24, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, May 1, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, May 8, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, May 15, 2026 | Monthly | Standard monthly OpEx |
| Friday, May 22, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, May 29, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, June 5, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, June 12, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Thursday, June 18, 2026 | Quarterly | Moved from June 19, 2026 for a market holiday. |
| Friday, June 26, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Thursday, July 2, 2026 | Weekly | Moved from July 3, 2026 for a market holiday. |
| Friday, July 10, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, July 17, 2026 | Monthly | Standard monthly OpEx |
| Friday, July 24, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, July 31, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, August 7, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, August 14, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, August 21, 2026 | Monthly | Standard monthly OpEx |
| Friday, August 28, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, September 4, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, September 11, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, September 18, 2026 | Quarterly | Quarterly OpEx |
| Friday, September 25, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, October 2, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, October 9, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, October 16, 2026 | Monthly | Standard monthly OpEx |
| Friday, October 23, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, October 30, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, November 6, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, November 13, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, November 20, 2026 | Monthly | Standard monthly OpEx |
| Friday, November 27, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, December 4, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, December 11, 2026 | Weekly | Weekly Friday cycle |
| Friday, December 18, 2026 | Quarterly | Quarterly OpEx |
| Thursday, December 24, 2026 | Weekly | Moved from December 25, 2026 for a market holiday. |
API sequence
Use the calendar as a prior, then verify listed contracts
A deterministic workflow starts with listed dates, not assumptions. Pull available expirations for the underlying, classify each returned date, and only then request chains or contract lists. That sequence prevents invalid dates, keeps weekly and monthly logic explicit, and makes holiday adjustments observable in logs.
curl "https://api.cutemarkets.com/v1/tickers/expirations/QQQ/" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
curl "https://api.cutemarkets.com/v1/options/contracts/?underlying_ticker=QQQ&expiration_date=2026-04-17&limit=100" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"Last verified
Date-sensitive calendar references on this page were checked on May 30, 2026. Calendar math is useful for planning, but listed contracts and exchange calendars should still be verified before production workflows run.
Weekly options expiration FAQ
Do weekly options expire every Friday?
Many active equity and ETF options list weekly Friday expirations, but not every underlying lists every weekly date. Market holidays can also move a Friday expiration to the prior business day.
How are weekly options different from monthly options?
A weekly expiration is a short-dated listed cycle that is not the standard monthly third-Friday cycle. Monthly options are the standard third-Friday contracts, with March, June, September, and December marked as quarterly cycles.
Should I hard-code a weekly options calendar?
Use static calendars for planning, but fetch listed expirations by ticker before requesting chains, contracts, or snapshots in production.
Operational usage
How to use Weekly Options Expiration Calendar in a real workflow
Treat this page as a decision boundary for the surrounding API workflow. Before a value from Weekly Options Expiration Calendarenters a scanner, dashboard, calendar, backtest, or support answer, store the source route, request parameters, relevant timestamp, freshness label, and the reason the value is suitable for the next step.
The important implementation habit is to keep display labels separate from stable identifiers. Dates should remain tied to the calendar rule or listed-expiration source that produced them. Option rows should keep the OCC symbol, expiration, strike, side, quote state, and pagination context that created the row. Provider or product answers should keep the entitlement, licensing, and support assumptions visible.
When the workflow changes, rerun the page against one concrete example instead of trusting a general claim. Pick the ticker, date window, endpoint family, and expected output artifact. Then verify that the same terminology appears in the API request, UI label, log entry, and review checklist.
Related pages
Options expiration this week
See the nearest upcoming weekly and monthly expiration dates.
QQQ weekly options dates
Open the QQQ-specific 2026 weekly expiration reference.
SPXW expiration dates
Review the PM-settled SPXW short-dated index series.
Next OpEx date
Open the next standard monthly OpEx date with nearby weekly cycles.
2026 options expiration dates
Use the primary full-year monthly and quarterly OpEx table.
Expiration data workflow
Use the calendar-vs-listed-expiration workflow before requesting chains, contracts, quotes, or bars.
Full expiration calendar
Use the interactive calendar for weekly, monthly, quarterly, and holiday-adjusted OpEx dates.
SPX options dates
Separate standard SPX monthly dates, SPXW context, and settlement caveats.
SPXW expiration dates
Review short-dated SPXW weekly and end-of-month expiration context.
SPY 2026 dates
Use the main SPY 2026 page for weekly, monthly, and June holiday context.
VIX expiration dates
Check 2026 standard VIX dates, last trading days, and related SPX cycles.
Expirations API docs
Fetch listed expiration dates for any underlying ticker with one endpoint.
Options data catalog
Browse contracts, chains, quotes, trades, bars, and reference endpoints.