Expiration
The date on which a futures contract reaches the end of its life and is either cash-settled or triggers physical delivery.
Expiration (also: expiry) is the date specified in the contract after which the futures contract ceases to trade. At expiration, all remaining open positions are settled — either by cash settlement (financial futures) or by initiating the physical delivery process (commodity futures).
Equity index futures (ES, NQ, YM, RTY) expire on the third Friday of the contract month (March, June, September, December for the standard quarterly cycle). The final settlement price is the Special Opening Quotation (SOQ) — a single-price auction of the underlying index components.
Traders who do not intend to hold through expiry must roll their position to the next contract before the last trading day.