State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) Open Interest History

Open interest tracks the total number of outstanding options contracts. Rising OI alongside price moves can indicate growing commitment to the trend; declining OI suggests positions are being closed.

State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) operates in the Financial Services sector, specifically the Asset Management industry, with a market capitalization near $765.22B, listed on AMEX, carrying a beta of 1.00 to the broader market. The State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust seeks to provide investment results that, before expenses, correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the S&P 500 Index (the “Index”)The S&P 500 Index is a diversified large cap U. public since 1993-01-29.

Snapshot as of May 18, 2026.

Spot Price

$737.84

Call OI

5.5M

Put OI

12.2M

Total OI

17.7M

Put/Call Ratio

1.04

As of May 18, 2026, State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) has 17.7M total contracts outstanding across all expirations. Put/call OI ratio is 2.22 (put-heavy positioning, often indicating hedging or bearish bias). Open interest reflects accumulated positions from prior sessions; persistent growth indicates sustained directional or hedging interest, while sharp drops typically mean post-expiration clean-up.

How SPY open interest history Data Feeds Strategy Selection

Strategy selection on State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust options does not derive from any single metric in isolation. The open interest history view above sits inside a broader read: ATM IV currently sits at 15.5% and dealer gamma exposure is negative, so dealer hedging amplifies directional moves. Combine the open interest history data here with the volatility-skew surface, dealer-gamma exposure, max-pain level, and upcoming-events calendar to build a positioning thesis. Risk-defined structures (credit spreads, debit spreads, iron condors) are usually safer than naked positions while the regime is uncertain; the data on this page anchors the inputs but does not by itself constitute a trade thesis.

How to read the SPY open-interest data

The open-interest time-series above tracks the total State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust options inventory outstanding day by day. OI is a stock measure - the cumulative position count - so trends flag accumulating or distributing positioning. Current put/call ratio is 1.04, roughly balanced. Total call OI of 5.5M versus put OI of 12.2M gives a put/call OI ratio of 2.22 - structurally a slower-moving signal than the volume-based ratio.

SPY flow vs positioning

Volume tells you what flows happened today; OI tells you what positions accumulated. Both can move in opposite directions: rising volume with falling OI means contracts are being closed (covering); rising volume with rising OI means new positions are being opened. The combination matters more than either alone for reading sentiment. Combined with the current negative dealer-gamma regime, large OI clusters tend to act as price repellents that accelerate moves through key strikes.

Using SPY OI/volume data alongside other surfaces

Per-strike OI is the input to dealer-gamma calculations: strikes with elevated call OI generate gamma walls that dealers must hedge into as spot approaches them. The gamma-exposure page combines this distribution with the dealers' assumed-long-gamma assumption to project hedge flow. Volume cross-checks recent positioning shifts in the chain that haven't yet shown up in cumulative OI. Pair both with the term-structure view on the volatility page to determine whether the activity is concentrated in near-dated event hedging or longer-dated structural positioning. Front-month expiration for SPY sits at 31 days, so near-dated volume currently dominates the flow reading.

Learn how open interest is reported and how to read the data →

Daily open-interest history for SPY options over the last ~32 trading days. Each row reflects the end-of-day total OI summed across all listed strikes and expirations.

Most recent 15 trading days (descending). Older history appears in the chart above.

SPY highest open-interest contracts

Top 9 contracts from the institutional-grade nightly options scan; ranked by oi within the broader S&P 500/400/600 + ETF universe.

Frequently asked SPY open interest history questions

What is the current SPY options open interest?

As of May 18, 2026, State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) has 17.7M total contracts outstanding across all listed expirations, split as 5.5M calls and 12.2M puts. Open interest reflects accumulated positions from prior trading sessions; it does not include today's volume until end-of-day reconciliation.

What is the SPY put/call open interest ratio?

Put/call OI ratio of 2.22 is put-heavy, often indicating hedging demand or bearish positioning.

What does SPY open interest tell traders?

Persistent OI growth indicates sustained directional or hedging interest; sharp drops typically mean post-expiration position cleanup. Heavy OI concentrations at specific strikes act as support and resistance levels because dealer hedging amplifies near those strikes - the gamma profile of the dealer book is concentrated there. Comparing today's volume to standing OI separates opening flow from closing flow.