Word.ws English Dictionary

triple witching

triple witching noun: simultaneous expiry on US markets of stock index futures, stock index options, and stock options, which took place on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December. (With the introduction of single stock futures those days are now quadruple witching.).

Noun

triple witching (uncountable)

  1. Simultaneous expiry on US markets of stock index futures, stock index options, and stock options, which took place on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December. (With the introduction of single stock futures those days are now quadruple witching.)

Origin of triple witching

The idea of witching for these days is from the unusual patterns of trading that can occur ahead of the contract expiries.

Words formed from triple witching

Questions about triple witching

What does triple witching mean?
Triple witching means simultaneous expiry on US markets of stock index futures, stock index options, and stock options, which took place on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December. (With the introduction of single stock futures those days are now quadruple witching.).
What part of speech is triple witching?
Triple witching is a noun.

Words near triple witching in the dictionary

  1. triple valves
  2. triple warmer
  3. triple warmers
  4. triple whammies
  5. triple whammy
  6. triple witching
  7. triple witching hour
  8. triple witching hours
  9. triple X
  10. triple X syndrome
  11. triple-A

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: triple witching (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “triple witching.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/triple_witching. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.