Witching hour is the final hour of trading on the 3rd Friday of each month as options and futures on stocks and stock indexes expire.
More specifically, expiry of:
- stock index futures,
- stock index options,
- stock options
- and single stock futures
Market folklore says the final hour of (US cash market) trading today, 3- 4 pm ET, will be more volatile than usual due to QWH!
Ummm, maybe, maybe not. So far its an excuse for the complete absence of FX volatility in Asia today … Then again the timezone here doesn’t often need much of an excuse. 🙁