MaturityDate for options

1

In the context of a DMA trading platform, our rules of engagement require an options order to specify (amongst other tags) the exchange product code in tag 55, and some detail of the maturity in tag 200 and/or tag 541.

In some cases, the last trading date of an option is in the month prior to the contract month. This is common for options on bond futures such as OGBL on Eurex and ZN (10-Year) on CBOT. There are many other cases too where the last trading date is in a month that is different to the contract month.

In such cases I believe it is widely accepted that MaturityMonthYear (200) refers to the contract month, which is the colloquial name used by market participants when discussing an order. E.g. for OGBL Sep25 options, we’d expect 200=202509, even though the last trading date is in August.

However, given the name of tag 541 (MaturityDate), there seems to be some ambiguity as to what should be the content. I would venture that the de facto industry standard approach is to use 541 for the last trading date, which is often extremely useful in identifying specific maturities where many fall within the same month.

I would be very interested to hear if anyone has any supporting or opposing opinions.

2

In looking at what CME and Eurex does with tag 541, it seems they both use it differently. CME uses 541 for “Date the specified contract expires (last settlement date)” of the options contract while Eurex seem to use it for actual maturity date of the contract.

History of MaturityDate: it was a field added for bond maturity initially but are used in varying ways by other security types.

I think your question is one worth rationalizing to see what various exchanges/clearing houses use for the different date concepts for ETDs, e.g. contract date, maturity/expiry date, clearing date, first and last trading date, settlement date. They key too is sussing out the definitions.