iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) 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.
iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) operates in the Financial Services sector, specifically the Asset Management - Bonds industry, with a market capitalization near $41.81B, listed on NASDAQ, carrying a beta of 2.37 to the broader market. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U. public since 2002-07-30.
Snapshot as of May 15, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $83.65
- Call OI
- 5.2M
- Put OI
- 3.5M
- Total OI
- 8.7M
- Put/Call Ratio
- 1.72
As of May 15, 2026, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) has 8.7M total contracts outstanding across all expirations. Put/call OI ratio is 0.66 (call-heavy positioning). 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 TLT open interest history Data Feeds Strategy Selection
Strategy selection on iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF 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 12.0% 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 TLT open-interest data
The open-interest time-series above tracks the total iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF 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 1.72, put-heavy - protective or bearish positioning dominates. Total call OI of 5.2M versus put OI of 3.5M gives a put/call OI ratio of 0.66 - structurally a slower-moving signal than the volume-based ratio.
TLT 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 TLT 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 TLT sits at 28 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 TLT options over the last ~29 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.
| Date | Call OI | Put OI | Total OI | P/C OI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 15, 2026 | 5.2M | 3.5M | 8.7M | 0.66 |
| May 14, 2026 | 5.1M | 3.4M | 8.5M | 0.66 |
| May 13, 2026 | 5.0M | 3.3M | 8.2M | 0.66 |
| May 12, 2026 | 4.8M | 3.1M | 8.0M | 0.65 |
| May 11, 2026 | 4.9M | 3.1M | 8.0M | 0.64 |
| May 8, 2026 | 5.0M | 3.1M | 8.1M | 0.63 |
| May 7, 2026 | 4.9M | 3.1M | 8.0M | 0.63 |
| May 6, 2026 | 4.9M | 3.1M | 8.0M | 0.63 |
| May 5, 2026 | 4.8M | 3.1M | 7.9M | 0.63 |
| May 4, 2026 | 4.8M | 3.0M | 7.7M | 0.63 |
| May 1, 2026 | 4.8M | 3.0M | 7.8M | 0.64 |
| Apr 30, 2026 | 4.7M | 3.0M | 7.7M | 0.63 |
| Apr 28, 2026 | 4.6M | 2.9M | 7.4M | 0.62 |
| Apr 27, 2026 | 4.6M | 2.8M | 7.4M | 0.61 |
| Apr 24, 2026 | 4.7M | 2.9M | 7.6M | 0.62 |
TLT highest open-interest contracts
| Type | Strike | Expiration | Volume | OI | IV | Bid | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CALL | $110.00 | Jan 15, 2027 | 293 | 131.8K | 18.7% | $0.18 | $0.19 |
| CALL | $100.00 | Jan 15, 2027 | 5.3K | 126.6K | 15.1% | $0.30 | $0.32 |
Top 2 contracts from the institutional-grade nightly options scan; ranked by oi within the broader S&P 500/400/600 + ETF universe.
Frequently asked TLT open interest history questions
- What is the current TLT options open interest?
- As of May 15, 2026, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) has 8.7M total contracts outstanding across all listed expirations, split as 5.2M calls and 3.5M 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 TLT put/call open interest ratio?
- Put/call OI ratio of 0.66 is call-heavy, often a directional bullish or upside-speculation signal.
- What does TLT 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.