Put Spread Expiry: 30, 45, 60 or 120 Days?

"Which expiry?" is one of the first choices when you sell a put spread. There is no single right answer. This article lays out the trade-offs and shows what our own signals use and what happened with each.

How to read the FIREDesk numbers in this article. They come from our paper-trading record (14 May to 9 Oct 2026): no real capital was used, option prices are estimated by a model rather than taken from real fills, and 13 of the 102 logged signals use credits calibrated from historical data. The model has no sudden jumps in volatility, so real fills and real stops would be less favourable. On 12 October 2026 we also fixed a calculation error that had recorded stop-losses the market prices did not justify; the figures here are the corrected ones. It is a short, early record and it is not a forecast. Full detail is on the performance page.

The trade-offs

• Longer expiry: a larger credit for the same delta, a slower decay per day, more time for the market to move against you, and more sensitivity to changes in implied volatility.
• Shorter expiry: faster decay in the final weeks, but price moves hurt faster too (gamma), the credit is smaller and there is less time to recover.

For background on decay see theta decay explained.

What FIREDesk uses

The expiry depends on the trend state described in the EMA-200 article: about 60 days when SPY is above its 7-, 30- and 200-day averages, about 120 days when it is above the 200-day but below a shorter one. In the log the first group ran from 45 to 66 days to expiry and the second from 120 to 126.

What the paper record shows for each

• About 60 days: 53 signals, average credit $0.82 per share, short strike on average 6.8% below SPY. Of 43 closed trades, 29 hit the take profit and 14 hit the stop; 10 are still open. Winners closed after a median of 25 days.
• About 120 days: 49 signals, average credit $1.08 per share, short strike on average 8.8% below SPY. Of 41 closed trades, all 41 hit the take profit and none the stop; 8 are still open. Winners closed after a median of 27 days.

Read this with care. The 120-day trades have simply had less time: 8 are still open and any of them can still reach its stop. The longer trades also sit further from the price (8.8% versus 6.8%), which by itself explains part of the difference: all 14 stops in the record came from trades with the short strike less than 8% below the price, and none of the 34 closed trades with a strike at least 8% below it hit the stop, whatever their expiry. We discuss this in What is the best credit spread strategy?. The two groups overlap in time, were opened under different market conditions, and come from under five months of paper trading. It is a pattern to watch, not a conclusion.

How to choose for yourself

• Decide how long you are willing to keep capital and risk tied up.
• Decide whether you prefer a larger credit with a longer exposure or a smaller one that decays sooner.
• Fix the profit target and the stop before the expiry, because they decide what each expiry means in practice. See the 1.5x stop loss.
• Test two expiries side by side in paper trading for at least three months before putting money on either.

The full rule set is in the complete SPY bull put spread strategy guide.

Educational content, not financial advice. Options trading involves significant risk of loss, including the loss of the whole amount at risk on a trade. Past and simulated results do not guarantee future performance.