Expiry
Expiry is the date on which an option contract ceases to exist and is settled — after which it has no further value.
What Expiry Means
Expiry (the expiration date) is the last day an option contract is valid. At expiry the option is either exercised (if in-the-money) or expires worthless (if out-of-the-money), and the contract is removed from the books. Every option has a finite life, which is why time value steadily decays toward expiry.
As expiry approaches, the option's behaviour changes dramatically: time value shrinks, Theta and Gamma spike, and premiums become hypersensitive to small moves in the underlying.
Weekly vs Monthly Expiry
Index options offer both weekly and monthly expiries. Weekly options have just days of life, so they decay fast and are favoured for short-term and expiry-day strategies. Monthly options live longer, carry more time value, and are used for positional trades. The nearest weekly is usually the most liquid and most actively traded.
Expiry in the Indian Market
NSE Nifty weekly options expire on Thursday (rolling to the prior day on holidays), making Thursday the most-traded session for premium sellers harvesting the final Theta decay. Expiry day brings extreme Gamma, violent premium swings, and the market often gravitating toward the max pain strike. Quintal Mind streams live expiry-day chains, Greeks and max pain so you can navigate the close.
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