when single stock futures were permitted to trade in the u s between 2002 and 2020 they expired on the same quarterly schedule giving rise to quadruple witching meanwhile double witching occurs on the third friday of the eight months that aren t triple witching the expiring contracts are options on stocks and stock indexes 
the activity during monthly witching hours is related to rolling out or closing expiring contracts to avoid the expiration and having to buy the underlying asset due to imbalances that could happen when these trades are placed arbitrageurs could look to profit from the resulting price inefficiencies reasons to offset positionsthe primary reason for the increased action on witching hour days is that if the contracts are not closed before expiration that could mean having to buy or sell the underlying security for example futures contracts that are not closed require the seller to deliver the specified quantity of the underlying security or commodity to the contract buyer options that are in the money that is profitable may mean the underlying asset is exercised and assigned to the contract owner in both cases if the contract owner or contract writer can pay for security to be delivered the contract must be closed out before expiration 2rolling out or rolling forward meanwhile is when a position in the expiring contract is closed and replaced with a contract expiring at a later date the trader closes the expiring position settling the gain or loss and then opens a new position in a different contract at the current market rate opportunities for arbitragebesides the increased trading the witching hour can also result in price inefficiencies and hence arbitrage opportunities because of the heavy volume of trades coming in quickly traders seek to profit from even slight price imbalances for example contracts representing large short positions those taken expecting the security price to drop may be bid higher if traders anticipate that the contracts will be bought to close positions before expiration when this happens traders may sell contracts at temporarily high prices and then close them out before the end of the witching hour alternatively they might buy the contract to ride the wave up then sell once the buying frenzy slows down the witching hour and triple quadruple witchingtriple and quadruple witching days occur when three or four of the following expire stock index futures stock index options single stock options and options on stock index futures triple witching happens four times per year but quadruple witching is rare the concentration of expiring contracts on these dates can catalyze higher market volatility and heavy trading volumes 34triple witching occurs on the last friday of each trading quarter i e march june september and december the final triple witching for 2023 is on dec 15 the triple witching dates in 2024 are march 15 june 21 sept 20 and dec 20 5as contract expiration deadlines approach the witching hour trading activity usually surges as market participants rush to close or roll over positions before it s too late thus volatility frequently spikes during this frenetic final trading hour across the derivatives markets and their underlying assets as speculative plays and hedging activities spill over to equities to whip up the market further so while witching days stand out for active trading the last witching hour stands out even more as the frenzy hits a maximum before the inevitable expiration and settlement activity in the moments ahead of the stock market close 