Best Stocks for Weekly Options: 10 by Volume

Ten names ranked by average daily option volume — where weekly contracts have the open interest and tight markets that short-dated trading requires.

Weekly Options
Liquidity
Live Data
Last Updated:
8 min read
Fact-checked & Up-to-date
AV
Written by
ApexVol Research Team
Quantitative options research
All calculations use live institutional-grade data — the same source used by professional volatility desks.
RS
Technical reviewer
Ryan Silk, ApexVol Founder
Reviewed for technical accuracy
10+ years trading options. Built ApexVol's pricing engine, Greeks model, and IV-rank methodology.
This guide is updated as market conditions and institutional data change. Last revised 2026-08-04. How we research →

The Short Answer

Weekly options only work where volume is. A weekly contract with no open interest has a wide market and no exit, and short-dated positions are exactly the ones you cannot afford to be stuck in — theta is working against a bad fill every single day. Liquidity is the first filter for weeklies, not the last.

Average daily option volume across all expirations is the best available proxy for weekly liquidity, because the venues that list dense weekly chains are the same ones with heavy overall flow. Note that high volume also means high implied volatility is real: these names move, and weekly options give you very little time to be wrong.

ApexVol screens 399 optionable names for this list, requiring a $5+ share price and 1,000+ contracts of average daily option volume before ranking. Ranked by ORATS 20-day average daily option volume. Requires $5+ share price. Live IV rank and 30-day IV shown for each so you can see what you are paying alongside how easily you can trade it.

— ApexVol · ApexVol screening methodology · methodology
Live institutional data — refreshed 2026-08-04. August 2026 data refresh: rebuilt from 399 liquid names on the 2026-08-03 ORATS snapshot. Top pick SPY at 12.0M contracts/day.
1
SPY Top Pick

12.0M contracts a day with 17.9M total open interest. IV rank 23, 30-day IV 12%.

IV Rank (2026-08-03)
23.0 · IV 12.3%
Ideal For
12.0M contracts/day
Learn SPY
2

7.8M contracts a day with 10.8M total open interest. IV rank 68, 30-day IV 21%.

IV Rank (2026-08-03)
68.0 · IV 21.5%
Ideal For
7.8M contracts/day
Learn QQQ
3

3.4M contracts a day with 13.6M total open interest. IV rank 57, 30-day IV 44%.

IV Rank (2026-08-03)
57.0 · IV 44.4%
Ideal For
3.4M contracts/day
Learn NVDA
4

2.4M contracts a day with 5.6M total open interest. IV rank 50, 30-day IV 45%.

IV Rank (2026-08-03)
50.0 · IV 45.3%
Ideal For
2.4M contracts/day
Learn TSLA
5

1.6M contracts a day with 9.5M total open interest. IV rank 7, 30-day IV 18%.

IV Rank (2026-08-03)
7.0 · IV 17.7%
Ideal For
1.6M contracts/day
Learn IWM
6

1.5M contracts a day with 4.8M total open interest. IV rank 96, 30-day IV 27%.

IV Rank (2026-08-03)
96.0 · IV 26.9%
Ideal For
1.5M contracts/day
Learn AAPL
7

865K contracts a day with 3.2M total open interest. IV rank 79, 30-day IV 90%.

IV Rank (2026-08-03)
79.0 · IV 90.3%
Ideal For
865K contracts/day
Learn MU
8

778K contracts a day with 4.7M total open interest. IV rank 71, 30-day IV 33%.

IV Rank (2026-08-03)
71.0 · IV 33.0%
Ideal For
778K contracts/day
Learn AMZN
9

726K contracts a day with 5.4M total open interest. IV rank 80, 30-day IV 82%.

IV Rank (2026-08-03)
80.0 · IV 82.5%
Ideal For
726K contracts/day
Learn INTC
10

683K contracts a day with 4.0M total open interest. IV rank 82, 30-day IV 30%.

IV Rank (2026-08-03)
82.0 · IV 30.5%
Ideal For
683K contracts/day
Learn MSFT

How We Ranked These Strategies

Ranked by ORATS 20-day average daily option volume. Requires $5+ share price. Live IV rank and 30-day IV shown for each so you can see what you are paying alongside how easily you can trade it.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which stocks have the most liquid weekly options?

The broad index ETFs and the largest, most actively traded single names. This list ranks by measured average daily option volume rather than by reputation, so the ordering reflects current flow rather than which tickers are talked about most.

Are weekly options riskier than monthlies?

They concentrate the same risks into less time. Gamma is far higher near expiration, so a position that is comfortably out of the money on Wednesday can be deep in the money on Friday with no time left to manage it. The faster theta decay that attracts sellers is the same force that leaves no recovery room.

Do all stocks have weekly options?

No. Weeklies are listed selectively, concentrated in high-volume names and major ETFs. If a ticker is not in the top tier of option volume it likely has monthly expirations only, or weeklies so thin they are not practically tradable.

Is high option volume the same as tight spreads?

Closely related but not identical. Volume drives market-maker competition, which drives spread width, so the correlation is strong. Open interest matters too, which is why it is shown alongside volume for each name here.

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