Earnings week cheat sheet: the move options are pricing for TSLA, META, NFLX and 13 more

Sixteen companies report between Monday and Friday. At the Oct 16 close, the Oct 23 options had already named a size for each one. Western Digital carries the widest priced move. Procter & Gamble carries the narrowest. A bigger number is a wider band around Friday's close. It is not a forecast, and it does not point up or down.

The cheat sheet

Prices and option marks are from the close on Friday, Oct 16, 2026. Report times are as scheduled on Oct 16 and can change, so check the Earnings Calendar before each report.

The tickets are the full record. The ledger below puts all sixteen on one percent scale, so the sizes compare at a glance. Each band runs the same distance up and down from zero, because a straddle prices a move in either direction. Sort it by size, or choose a row for its dollar range.

Where the earnings premium sits

Implied volatility does not live on one expiry. Each expiry has its own curve across strikes. For Tesla at the Oct 16 close, the Oct 23 expiry is the first one that holds Wednesday's report, and it stands well above its neighbors: 67.1% at the money against 34.4% for Oct 19, about double. Later expiries step down as the report becomes a smaller part of their life.

On EZPZ, Volatility Surface 3D draws the full surface live for any ticker you search.

What stands out

• Wednesday night is the crowded slot. Meta, Tesla, IBM, Texas Instruments and Lam Research all report after the close on Oct 21. Each one is priced for a move of 7% or more.
• Chip names carry wide pricing. Western Digital (±10.4%), Texas Instruments (±8.4%) and Lam Research (±8.2%) report after the PHLX chip index fell for eight straight sessions, as Reuters reported on Oct 16.
• Tesla and Meta are priced almost alike. TSLA at ±7.5% and META at ±7.3%, both reporting after Wednesday's close. Tesla's range runs from $328.23 to $381.21, with $354.72 in the middle.
• Staples price small. Procter & Gamble at ±3.6% is the narrowest on the list, about a third of Western Digital's.

What the flow showed into Tesla

The straddle sizes the move. It does not say which way the money leaned. For that, we read Tesla's tape from Friday, Oct 16, the session that set those marks. The short answer is split.

Unusual premium was close to even. 2,513 unusual TSLA prints moved $462.7M in premium on Friday. The feed tagged $118.4M as bullish and $134.3M as bearish, by where each print traded against the bid and ask. The largest share, $209.9M, traded near the middle and carries no lean. Calls drew more premium than puts, $274.7M to $188.0M, but a call print can be a sale as easily as a buy.

The biggest Oct 23 prints sat inside the range. Twice in the afternoon, the $362.50 and $377.50 Oct 23 calls printed in the same second at the same size: 1,043 contracts at 1:29 pm ET and 1,138 at 2:02 pm. That is the footprint of a call spread, with both strikes inside the $328.23 to $381.21 implied range. The tape does not show which side opened it. The largest Oct 23 print tagged bullish was 1,872 of the $390 calls at 10:34 am.

Dealer gamma changes sign above the close. For the Oct 23 expiry, EZPZ's GEX calculation puts net gamma below zero at most strikes up to $370, deepest at $350, just under the $354.72 close. It turns positive from $375 and peaks at $390, just past the top of the implied range. The crossing nearest the close is about $365. Negative gamma is where dealer hedging can add to a move. Positive gamma is where it tends to slow one.

This is one session of context, and it shifts as positions open and close. It is not a signal to buy or sell. The same reads are live on EZPZ for any ticker.

Finn draws the range

EZPZ Finn, the free desktop app, can draw that implied range on a TradingView chart. For Tesla the two lines are $328.23 (implied range low) and $381.21 (implied range high, Oct 23). Finn draws the levels. It does not say which way the stock goes.

How to read an implied move

An at-the-money straddle pays off if the stock moves far enough in either direction. What traders pay for it is a rough read on how big a move the market expects, without saying which way. Divide the straddle price by the stock price and you get the implied move as a percentage.

Three things to keep in mind

• It covers the whole week, not only the report. These straddles expire Friday, Oct 23, so they include the rest of the week's trading as well as the earnings reaction. For a Friday-morning reporter like American Express, the report is nearly all of it.
• It is a price, not a forecast. Stocks regularly move more or less than their options imply. The number tells you what the market paid for, nothing about what happens.
• It gets stale fast. Implied moves shift as prices and volatility change through the week, and implied volatility usually drops sharply once a report is out. These numbers describe the Oct 16 close.

Track it live on EZPZ

Each card opens the live page, the free delayed page when there is one, and the plain-English guide.

Ask AiPe about a report

On Pro and up, open Expected Move for a ticker and click Ask AiPe in the bottom right. Ask what range the options market is pricing for this week, or how the Oct 23 expiry compares with the next one. AiPe explains the data on your screen. It doesn't tell you what to trade, and it can be wrong.

FAQ