Cash Settlement and Quarterly Expiration on NQ: What Changes the Week Before December 18
How NQ's cash settlement works, why the settlement price can differ from NQ's last trade, and the dates that crowd into the days before December 18, 2026: FOMC, CPI, the reconstitution announcement and the roll, and a Friday that ends the contract, the options and the index's old weights.
NQ expiration this quarter falls on Friday, December 18, 2026. The December contract of the E-mini Nasdaq-100, NQ 12-26 (NQZ6 in exchange notation), stops trading at 9:30 AM ET / 15:30 CET that morning and settles in cash. Nothing is delivered. Positions still open are closed at the special opening quotation (SOQ), a value of the Nasdaq-100 calculated from each component stock's official opening price that day, and the difference is settled like any other day's P&L. The SOQ comes from the prices set in Nasdaq's opening auction at 9:30, not from the first index value printed after the open, so it can land some distance from NQ's last trade.
For a day trader the settlement itself rarely matters, because volume moves to the March contract, NQ 03-27, on Monday, December 14, CME's roll date; the rollover post covers the switch. What sets these days apart is how much else lands in them:
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Wednesday, December 9 | FOMC decision with projections, 2:00 PM ET / 20:00 CET |
| Thursday, December 10 | CPI at 8:30 AM ET / 14:30 CET |
| Friday, December 11 | Nasdaq-100 reconstitution expected to be announced after the close |
| Monday, December 14 | CME roll date; volume moves from 12-26 to 03-27 |
| Friday, December 18 | NQ 12-26 settles at the SOQ; quarterly options expiration; index funds trade the reconstitution at the close |
| Monday, December 21 | Reconstitution effective at the open |
Two of those change how NQ trades rather than when. The reconstitution ranks companies on their market values on November 30 and is traded by index funds at the close on the 18th, so that close carries far more volume than a normal one; how the list and its weights are set, and why a few companies move the whole index, is in the Nasdaq-100 weights post. The options expiration retires a large block of the dealer hedging described in the gamma exposure post, so levels that held for weeks because of that hedging can stop holding the week after.
My own plan for those days is the one from the rollover post: off 12-26 on the roll date, and levels redrawn from the March contract's own data.
Educational content, not investment advice. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss. Examples are for illustration only. Read the full Risk Disclosure.