When Is May OPEX 2026?
The exact May 2026 standard monthly options expiration date and how to distinguish it from weekly expirations.
May 2026 standard monthly OpEx is Friday, May 15, 2026. For active ETFs and equities, other Friday weekly expirations can also be listed in May, but May 15 is the standard third-Friday monthly cycle.
Monthly OpEx
May 15, 2026
Standard third-Friday cycle for May 2026.
Weekday
Friday
No holiday adjustment is needed for this monthly cycle.
Use case
Monthly cycle
Useful for OI concentration, monthly expiration scans, and event studies.
Why May 15 is the May 2026 monthly date
Standard monthly equity and ETF options normally expire on the third Friday of the expiration month. In May 2026, the third Friday is May 15, so that is the monthly OpEx date.
A weekly expiration on May 1, May 8, May 22, or May 29 is a different cycle. Those dates can matter for short-dated scanners, but they should not be labeled as monthly OpEx.
May 2026 Friday option cycles
API example
Verify the answer with listed data
may chain example
curl "https://api.cutemarkets.com/v1/options/chain/SPY/?expiration_date=2026-05-15&limit=25" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"Last verified
This Q&A page was last reviewed on April 28, 2026. Date-sensitive market calendars, provider docs, and listed contracts can change, so production workflows should verify the live source before trading or publishing an automated answer.
Related questions
Is May 15, 2026 monthly OpEx?
Yes. It is the standard third-Friday monthly expiration date for May 2026.
Are there weekly expirations in May 2026?
Active options products may list weekly expirations on other Fridays. Verify listed dates by underlying before using them.
Should a scanner hard-code May 15?
Use May 15 as the monthly calendar answer, but production scanners should fetch listed expirations from the API.
Related pages
Options Q&A hub
Browse exact-answer pages for expirations, OCC symbols, options data, and provider comparisons.
Expiration calendar
Use the interactive calendar for weekly, monthly, quarterly, and holiday-adjusted dates.
Expiration API
Fetch listed expiration dates from the API instead of hard-coding calendar rules.
Expirations docs
Review the endpoint used to discover listed option expiration dates.