Options expiries
Gold options expiries
Gold options data from GLD/IAU ETF options (proxy, 15 min delayed, US market hours). Strikes are converted to the gold price with the daily gold/GLD ratio (10.93); open interest is in ounce-equivalents (1 GLD contract ≈ 9.1 oz). US market closed: chain from the last close (27 Oct 16:00 ET).
GLD and IAU options expire at the US close, 16:00 ET. The standard monthly expiries, on the third Friday of the month, carry the most open interest. Each one gets a page three weeks before: open interest by strike, max pain and the move options price, and afterwards where it settled.
The next monthly expiry page (third Friday) appears three weeks before it.
How gold options expiry works
GLD lists options expiring every weekday, weekly options on Fridays and monthly options on the third Friday; IAU lists fewer. All of them expire at the US close, 16:00 ET. GLD options are settled in GLD shares at the close; as a gold price we use the GLD close times the day's gold/GLD ratio. When an expiry settles, its open interest disappears from the market in one step: the positions are exercised or expire and the hedges dealers held against them are no longer needed.
The monthly expiry on the third Friday is usually the largest of the month, with the long-dated January options the largest of all. That is why each of them gets its own page here, built from the same data every hour until 16:00 ET and then frozen with the settlement result.
What each expiry page shows
- Open interest by strike on GLD and IAU added together, calls and puts.
- Max pain: the settlement price at which option holders together would collect the least. Max pain for every open expiry, including the daily and weekly ones, is on gold max pain today.
- Put/call ratio and the largest call and put strikes.
- Expected move: how far at-the-money implied volatility prices gold to move by 16:00 ET on expiry day.
- After expiry: The GLD close converted to gold and how far it was from max pain and from the expected move.