Magnificent 7 stock options get SEC nod for Monday, Wednesday expiries

Contracts being listed on the new days include those on Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp., Nvidia Corp. and Tesla Inc.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved new expirations for Magnificent Seven stocks, moving the US market a step closer to daily expiries in single stock options.

The decision will allow Nasdaq Inc. to list options expiring on Mondays and Wednesday in these stocks. Nasdaq first proposed the listings in May.

Contracts being listed on the new days include those on Alphabet  Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp., Nvidia Corp. and Tesla Inc., according to a notice on the SEC website. In addition, Broadcom Inc. as well as the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF will be listed.

Single stock options currently only expire on Fridays, with the exception of some exchange-traded funds — SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, Invesco QQQ Trust and iShares Russell 2000 ETF — which have daily expiries. Since every weekday expiries were introduced for options based on the major stock indexes, the products have proved popular among retail investors, driving options volumes to consecutive record highs annually for the past six years.

“This decision supports greater flexibility and precision for market participants, enabling more efficient hedging and trading strategies,” said David Barrett, head of product for US Options at Nasdaq, in an emailed statement.

The plan “may provide the investing public and other market participants more flexibility to closely tailor their investment and hedging decisions in these options, thus allowing them to better manage their risk exposure,” SEC Deputy Secretary J. Matthew DeLesDernier, wrote in the approval notice published on Jan. 16.