Which Stocks Have Options? (Complete Guide + Data Source)

Which Stocks Have Options? (Complete Guide + Data Source)

Not every stock has options.

If you’ve ever tried to pull up an options chain and found nothing listed, you’ve already seen this in practice.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

• Which stocks have options

• Why some stocks don’t

• How weekly options differ from standard listings

• How to programmatically retrieve optionable tickers

• Where to get historical optionable stock data

Do All Stocks Have Options?

No.

Only a subset of U.S. equities have listed options contracts.

To qualify for options listing, stocks generally must meet certain criteria related to:

• Market capitalization

• Trading volume

• Share float

• Exchange listing requirements

Even then, not all eligible stocks receive options immediately.

As a result, the universe of optionable stocks changes over time.

Why Some Stocks Don’t Have Options

Common reasons include:

• Low trading volume

• Small market capitalization

• Recent IPO status

• Corporate restructuring or delisting

• Insufficient demand from market participants

Exchanges list options when there is enough liquidity and interest to support active trading.

How to Check if a Stock Has Options

You can check manually by:

• Looking up the ticker in a brokerage platform

• Checking the options chain tab

• Searching exchange listings

But that only tells you whether it has options today.

It does not tell you:

• Whether it had options historically

• Whether it had weekly expirations

• How dense its expiration structure was at a specific point in time

For systematic traders, that historical context is critical.

Programmatically Retrieving Optionable Tickers

If you need to retrieve the full list of optionable stocks programmatically, you can use an API.

For example:

This endpoint returns a point-in-time snapshot of stocks with listed options.

Each record includes:

• date — Snapshot date

• ticker — Stock symbol

• avg_days_between — Average number of days between the next six option expirations

• has_weeklies — Indicator for consecutive weekly expirations

Example Request (Python)

import requests

url = "https://api.alphanume.com/v1/optionable-tickers"
r = requests.get(url)
print(r.json())

import requests

url = "https://api.alphanume.com/v1/optionable-tickers"
r = requests.get(url)
print(r.json())

import requests

url = "https://api.alphanume.com/v1/optionable-tickers"
r = requests.get(url)
print(r.json())

import requests

url = "https://api.alphanume.com/v1/optionable-tickers"
r = requests.get(url)
print(r.json())

Example Response

{
  "count": 1,
  "data": [
    {
      "date": "2026-02-02",
      "ticker": "PFE",
      "avg_days_between": 7.0,
      "has_weeklies": 1
    }
  ]
}

{
  "count": 1,
  "data": [
    {
      "date": "2026-02-02",
      "ticker": "PFE",
      "avg_days_between": 7.0,
      "has_weeklies": 1
    }
  ]
}

{
  "count": 1,
  "data": [
    {
      "date": "2026-02-02",
      "ticker": "PFE",
      "avg_days_between": 7.0,
      "has_weeklies": 1
    }
  ]
}

{
  "count": 1,
  "data": [
    {
      "date": "2026-02-02",
      "ticker": "PFE",
      "avg_days_between": 7.0,
      "has_weeklies": 1
    }
  ]
}

This returns the latest available monthly snapshot.

You can also filter by date to retrieve historical records.

What Does avg_days_between Mean?

This metric measures expiration density.

It reflects the average number of days between the next six consecutive option expiration dates.

• Values near 7 → Dense weekly expiration structure

• Higher values → Less frequent expirations

This allows you to:

• Identify stocks with consistent weekly listings

• Filter for short-dated options strategies

• Study structural evolution of the options universe

Weekly Options vs Monthly Options

Some stocks have:

• Standard monthly expirations only

• Biweekly structures

• Dense weekly expirations (multiple consecutive weekly listings)

Weekly options are particularly important for:

• Short-dated volatility strategies

• Earnings trades

• Gamma scalping

• Cross-sectional options strategies

The availability of weekly expirations has expanded dramatically over the past decade, but not uniformly across all tickers.

If you’re backtesting a weekly options strategy, assuming all large stocks always had weekly options can introduce survivorship bias.

Why Historical Optionable Data Matters

If you are:

• Backtesting options strategies

• Building a cross-sectional trading universe

• Studying weekly listing expansion

• Avoiding survivorship bias

You cannot rely on today’s options availability.

You need to know which stocks had options at a specific point in time.

That’s where historical snapshots become essential.

Summary

Not all stocks have options.

The optionable universe:

• Changes over time

• Expands unevenly

• Varies in expiration structure

If you need:

• A current list of optionable stocks

• Historical monthly snapshots

• Weekly expiration structure indicators

• Programmatic access via API

You can retrieve the full dataset through:

Understanding which stocks have options — and when — is foundational for serious options research.