Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 21, 1:20 PM ET

SNDK max pain

Spot (delayed)$1,819
Max pain · Fri, Oct 2$1,600-12.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$203.2±11.2% by Fri, Oct 2
Put/Call OI0.7413K puts / 17K calls
Call wall$1,600largest call OI
Put wall$1,500largest put OI
IV3070.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$35.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $1,600
Earnings · expectedThu, Nov 5usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$1,650-9.3%4d
Fri, Oct 2$1,600-12.0%11d
Fri, Oct 9$1,440-20.8%18d
Fri, Oct 16$1,600-12.0%25d
Fri, Oct 23$1,690-7.1%32d
Fri, Oct 30$1,600-12.0%39d
Fri, Nov 20$1,500-17.5%60d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Nov 5)
Fri, Dec 18$1,090-40.1%88d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot160077011421514188622582630$1.4B$0
■ put-side pain■ call-side painTotal payout option writers would owe at each settle price (both sides, all open interest, ×100 shares) — low settles hurt put writers, high settles hurt call writers. The minimum — 1600 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spot1600770135015001630174022004K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SNDK open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 2.

Open-interest change — building vs unwinding

Needs two observed snapshot days for this expiration — the comparison appears automatically once the next weekday snapshot lands. We diff real observations only; nothing is estimated.

Volume by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spot1600770135015001630174022001K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spot77011421514188622582630212%70%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 71.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spotflip 1600120014501580168019002400+$15.2M$15.2M
Net dealer gamma per strike, in dollars per 1% move, assuming the standard convention (dealers long calls, short puts) — an assumption, not an observation. Above the amber flip level hedging tends to dampen moves; below it, to amplify them.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Oct 2

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.69-3.1416900.00141.24-3.15-0.31
0.68-3.2017000.00141.26-3.21-0.33
0.66-3.2617100.00151.29-3.27-0.34
0.64-3.3217200.00151.31-3.33-0.36
0.61-3.4217400.00161.34-3.43-0.39
0.60-3.4617500.00161.36-3.47-0.40
0.55-3.5517800.00161.39-3.56-0.45
0.52-3.5818000.00161.40-3.59-0.48
0.44-3.5718500.00161.38-3.58-0.56
0.37-3.4419000.00151.32-3.46-0.63
0.30-3.2319500.00141.23-3.24-0.70
0.25-2.9520000.00121.11-2.97-0.75
0.20-2.6520500.00110.99-2.67-0.80
0.17-2.3521000.00090.87-2.37-0.84
0.11-1.7722000.00070.65-1.80-0.90

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot590135015251640176020605K0
Call open interest per strike, stacked across the checked expirations — each color is one expiry. Strikes are pruned to the liquid center of each chain.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot4560090013401600225016K16K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 381K call contracts, 478K put contracts open.

Reading this honestly

Max pain is arithmetic, not prophecy: the settle price that would minimize what option writers pay out at expiration, computed from open interest alone. Prices sometimes gravitate toward heavy strikes into expiry — dealer hedging is a real flow — but the evidence that max pain predicts settlement better than chance is mixed, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Use it as a map of where positioning is stacked, next to the fundamentals and the earnings calendar, not as a target.

Data: Cboe delayed public feed (~15 minutes), refreshed here about every 15 minutes. Open interest itself updates once daily, before the open. Educational information, not investment advice.

Keep going: SNDK workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk