Options expiration trend: 0DTE tops 20 million a day in Q2 2026

Metric	Figure
Industry options ADV, Q2 2026	72.8 million (+19% y/y)
0DTE volume, year to date	+46.2%, over 20 million a day
Index options, YTD	+25%
ETF options, YTD	+27%
Single-stock options, YTD	+6%
FLEX options	+47% y/y
SPX share of index options, Q2	81%
SPY share of ETF options	42%

Cboe Global Markets published its quarterly review of the U.S. listed options industry on July 21, 2026, and the theme running through the data was options expiration. Contracts that expire on the same day they trade continued to take a larger share of activity, extending a shift in market behavior that has been building for several years.

According to the report, zero-days-to-expiration (0DTE) volume was up 46.2% year to date, to more than 20 million contracts a day. SPX 0DTE volume alone has nearly tripled since the start of 2024. Set against industry average daily volume of 72.8 million contracts in the second quarter, same-day contracts now represent a substantial part of what trades in the listed market on a typical day.

Overall industry ADV rose 19% from the second quarter of 2025. Growth was strongest in index and ETF products, which were up 25% and 27% year to date, compared with 6% growth in single-stock options. FLEX options, which allow traders to customize terms such as strike price and expiration date, rose 47% from a year earlier, a sign that institutional users are leaning on tailored contracts as well as standard listings.

Activity remained concentrated in a handful of products. SPX accounted for 81% of all index options trading in the quarter, and SPY represented 42% of ETF options volume. Among single stocks, Nvidia and Tesla each captured 9% of volume and Apple 3%. The report also named Charles Schwab, Robinhood and Interactive Brokers among the highest-volume venues for retail options flow, which underscores how much of the growth runs through retail brokerage platforms.

The rise of same-day expiration has practical effects beyond volume counts. Short-dated contracts compress the time between a trade and its final settlement value, which pushes dealers toward intraday hedging rather than overnight risk management. When a large share of open exposure expires each afternoon, hedging flows tied to those contracts can become a larger factor in late-day trading in the underlying index.

What to watch: whether 0DTE growth continues at a mid-40% pace in the second half, whether SPX keeps its 81% share of index options as competing products grow, and how exchanges and clearing firms handle the operational load of daily expirations as volumes rise further.