- Nifty 50 weekly options expire every Tuesday.
- Sensex weekly options expire every Thursday.
- The last Tuesday (NSE) or last Thursday (BSE) of the month is the monthly expiry.
- If expiry day is a market holiday, expiry moves to the previous trading day.
What is an expiry?
Every futures and options contract has a last day of life. On that day the contract is settled and stops trading. For index options in India this happens at the market close, 3:30 PM IST. Index options are cash-settled: no shares change hands, only the profit or loss is paid in cash, based on the index closing price.
An option that is in the money at expiry is settled at its intrinsic value. An option that is out of the money expires worthless. This is why the last day matters so much: there is no time left for a losing option to recover.
Weekly and monthly expiry days
| Index | Exchange | Weekly expiry | Monthly expiry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nifty 50 | NSE | Every Tuesday | Last Tuesday of the month |
| Sensex | BSE | Every Thursday | Last Thursday of the month |
| Bank Nifty | NSE | No weekly contract | Last Tuesday of the month |
Exchanges change these rules from time to time, usually after a SEBI circular. Always confirm the current schedule on the NSE or BSE website before you plan a trade. The Expiry Tape on this site counts down to the next Nifty and Sensex expiry and shifts the date automatically for market holidays.
What happens to premium on expiry day
An option premium has two parts: intrinsic value (how far it is in the money) and time value (everything else). Time value shrinks every day, and it shrinks fastest in the last few sessions. This decay is called theta.
- Out-of-the-money options can lose most of their remaining value within hours on expiry day.
- At-the-money options swing sharply with every small move in the index, because gamma is highest near expiry.
- Deep in-the-money options behave almost like futures and move nearly point for point with the index.
This is why expiry-day option buying feels like a lottery: a cheap option can multiply in minutes or go to zero just as fast.
Five common expiry-day mistakes
- Buying far out-of-the-money options because they are cheap. Cheap usually means unlikely. Most of them expire worthless.
- Holding a losing option to the close "hoping". Time value works against you every minute on expiry day.
- Selling options without a stop-loss. A sudden move against a short option near expiry can wipe out weeks of small profits.
- Forgetting the holiday shift. If Tuesday is a holiday, Nifty expiry moves to Monday. Positions you planned to hold until Tuesday expire a day early.
- Trading too big. Expiry-day moves are fast. Size your position so a full loss is an amount you can accept (see position sizing).
A simple expiry-week checklist
- Check the expiry date and any holiday shift on the Expiry Tape.
- Mark the key support and resistance zones before the market opens.
- Note where the highest call and put open interest sits; these strikes often act as resistance and support into expiry.
- Decide your maximum loss for the day before you place the first trade.
- Close or roll positions well before 3:30 PM rather than in the final minutes.
For education only. This is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Abhimanyu Traders is not a SEBI-registered investment adviser. Trading in equities and derivatives involves risk of loss.