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architortured

Member since: May 07
5 Day -2.27%
15 Day 2.70%
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Architecture Student
Age: 20's
architortured Brokerage Account
Posted April 18, 2008 (05:28PM)

Right now I can only look up AAPL option chains for May 08, July 08, October 08, January 09. What about June, August, September, etc.?

QQQQ shows a few more choices, but not every month.

What are the rules for determining which option chains I can lookup / purchase? Are these rules unique to the underlying stock? Are their any June 08, August 08, September 08 AAPL option contracts in existence right now?

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eire5199

Member since: Sep 07
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Posted April 19, 2008 (11:54AM)

Options have cycles.  During the current month, the available options are for this month (the front month), the following month, then it skips to the third following month, then the sixth month.

For a complete breakdown of options cycles, you can refer to the following publication:  http://www.optionseducation.org/resources/literature/files/understanding_equity_options.pdf
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architortured

Member since: May 07
5 Day -2.27%
15 Day 2.70%
1 Month -2.44%
3 Month 12.92%
6 Month 46.74%
1 Year 106.30%
As of: 11/21/09
How is this calculated?
Trades 5
Trade Notes 1
Blog Posts 1
Architecture Student
Age: 20's
architortured Brokerage Account
Posted April 20, 2008 (08:03AM)

Thank you eire5199. That document is very helpful.

I have copied the relavent sections from the PDF and posted them below.

from page 12: 
The Expiration Process
An equity option usually begins trading about eight
months before its expiration date, and trades on one of
three expiration cycles. However, because of the
sequential nature of these cycles, some options have a
life of only one to two months. At any given time, an
equity option can be bought or sold with one of four
expiration dates as designated in the expiration cycle
tables which can be found in the Appendix.
Exceptions to these guidelines are LEAPS, discussed
below, Weeklys and Quarterlys.
from pages 38-39: