XLE put/call ratio — latest available snapshot

Using open interest settled at the close on 2026-08-31, the XLE put/call open-interest ratio was 0.53 for the 2026-09-02 expiration: 5,503 put contracts against 10,390 calls. Across every listed expiration inside 45 days the chain carried 950,844 puts against 583,423 calls, a ratio of 1.63.

It divides the number of put contracts still outstanding by the number of call contracts still outstanding for the same expiration. It counts contracts, not trades and not intent: a put bought as portfolio insurance, a put sold for income, and a put inside a spread all add one contract to the same total. A ratio above 1 means more puts than calls exist; that is all the number itself says.

The ratio cannot answer that on its own, and we do not attach a direction to it. Open interest counts both sides of every contract — every put someone bought is a put someone else sold — and hedging, income selling and spreads all inflate the count without expressing a view on XLE. We publish the ratio as a description of how the chain is positioned, alongside max pain and the open-interest walls, and leave the interpretation to you.

We can only answer that against our own record, and we will say how short it is. Since 2026-07-10 we have stored 20 daily readings for XLE, each taken on whichever expiration was nearest that night: the lowest was 0.38, the median 0.85 and the highest 1.59. The most recent, 0.53 on 2026-08-31 for the 2026-09-02 expiration, came in above 6 of those days and below 13 of them. 20 days is not enough history to establish what is normal for XLE, and where a ratio sits inside a range does not imply a direction — open interest counts contracts on both sides of every trade.

Open interest is settled once per trading day by the clearing house, so the ratio can only change once a day. This page is rebuilt nightly from that end-of-day file; intraday option volume does not move open interest until the next settlement.