Stock Jitters Grow as $3.3 Trillion of Options Expires in a Day
- Third Friday of each month brings wave of derivatives activity
- Potential rate rises, Netflix among factors driving volatility
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Option expirations of more than $3 trillion are helping stoke market turbulence in a week already defined by the rout in stay-at-home stocks and gyrations in bonds.
The phenomenon -- generally known as OpEx -- has taken place like clockwork for about a year now. Around the middle of most months, American equities lurch lower, usually near the third Friday -- the day that most stock derivatives expire.