Understanding · Education
Weekly vs Monthly Options
By Ian Harvey · Reviewed July 2026
Weekly vs monthly options is the topic of this article which discusses the advantages of each, as well as the way that they are used in our trading membership services. While weekly and monthly options share many similarities, there are also a number of factors that can make trading these two types of stock options quite different.
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Cost of Weekly vs Monthly Options
The price of an options contract, its premium , is calculated based on a number of elements. One of these elements is the amount of time that a contract has prior to its expiration date. Because weekly options typically have a very short amount of time to their expiration date, the premium is usually lower than that of the corresponding monthly options.
It is also possible to buy monthly options that are nearing their expiration date, and by doing so to purchase them at lower cost due to the decreased amount of time value. However, if you are doing this, make sure that there is a strong likelihood that the contract will become profitable within the limited time remaining.
Using Weekly vs Monthly Options with Short-Term Catalysts
Trading weekly options is a great way to take advantage of short-term opportunities, as they are designed for trading with a short time span. When there is an imminent event, such as the company reporting earnings, or major financial news, that is likely to significantly affect the price of a stock, this is an ideal time to enter a weekly option trade.
A monthly option could also be used, and if it is nearing expiration, then the cost may be comparable with using a weekly option. In either case, this type of trading requires a hands-on approach, monitoring the trade and being ready to implement a quick response to changing conditions.
Trading Choices with Weekly vs Monthly Options
When considering trading weekly vs monthly options, one very clear advantage to trading weekly options is that there are many more choices of expiration dates. While you can buy monthly options with only one expiry date within the month, weekly options offer at least three different expiry dates .
This range of expiration dates with weekly options allows for many different trading opportunities, including buying again when an existing trade is performing well.
An advantage of trading monthly options is that it offers better opportunities for traders who want to take a more relaxed approach to their trading. With monthly options, you can use a long call or a long leave it to sit after putting a sell price and stop loss in place.
A FINAL WORD ON WEEKLY VS MONTHLY OPTIONS
For a hands-on trader who wants to buy options for the best possible price and make quick and frequent trades, weekly options can be a great choice. Monthly options also offer plenty of opportunities for benefiting from trading stock options, and allows for a longer-term approach to trading. Both weekly and monthly options provide a way to benefit from price movement on the stock market for just a fraction of the cost of trading stocks, and allow you to profit from trading even when prices drop by using put options.
Whether you prefer trading weekly options, monthly options, or a combination of both, our membership services take the hard work and the guesswork out of trading options.
Weekly Option Trade Results The results from recent trades offered through our membership service are listed on this page.
Amazon Weekly Option Trade Delivers 318% Gain as Analysts Turn Bullish Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN): Weekly Options Trade Delivers 318% Gain as Analysts Turn Even More Bullish
Affirm Options Trade Soars 103% in 3 Days as Analysts Turn Bullish Affirm stock surged after strong earnings, with a Weekly Options USA trade gaining 103% in 3 days as analysts raised price targets.
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