      Triple-witching day is the third Friday of the month that ends eachquarter. It marks the simultaneous expiration of stock options, indexoptions, and index futures. Triple witching is associated with increasedmarket volatility. Stock options that are exercised (which translates intostocks being bought and sold) create substantial increases in tradingvolume. Because of the added volatility in the markets, the futures-to-cashpremium experiences more frequent imbalances, resulting in the initiationof program trading. Additionally, many traders are attempting to unwindtheir positions or roll them over to the next expiration month. Thesimultaneous expiration of these three contracts and the actions associatedwith them causes rapid, sometimes chaotic, fluctuations in the market.