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

SNDK max pain

Spot (delayed)$1,819
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$1,600-12.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$280.5±15.4% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.3040K puts / 31K calls
Call wall$3,530largest call OI
Put wall$900largest put OI
IV3070.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$16.0Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $2,000
Earnings · expectedThu, Nov 5usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — 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

spot160052011221724232629283530$4.0B$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 16

spot1600520102012601520170021002K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SNDK open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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 16

spot1600520102012601520170021001K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot52011221724232629283530165%69%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 69.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 2000106012601460161018002200+$5.0M$5.0M
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 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.71-2.1016400.00101.69-2.11-0.29
0.70-2.1316500.00101.72-2.15-0.30
0.65-2.2917000.00111.84-2.31-0.35
0.60-2.3917400.00111.91-2.40-0.40
0.59-2.4117500.00111.93-2.42-0.41
0.56-2.4517800.00111.96-2.47-0.44
0.54-2.4718000.00111.97-2.49-0.47
0.51-2.4818200.00111.98-2.50-0.49
0.49-2.4918400.00111.98-2.51-0.51
0.43-2.4619000.00111.95-2.48-0.58
0.37-2.3819600.00111.87-2.40-0.64
0.33-2.3020000.00101.80-2.32-0.67
0.25-2.0421000.00091.58-2.07-0.75
0.24-1.9821200.00081.53-2.01-0.77
0.19-1.7422000.00071.34-1.78-0.82

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