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

SNDK max pain

Spot (delayed)$1,819
Max pain · Fri, Oct 23$1,690-7.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$315.2±17.3% by Fri, Oct 23
Put/Call OI1.614K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$2,000largest call OI
Put wall$1,500largest put OI
IV3070.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$716Kper 1% move
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

spot169080011601520188022402600$244M$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 — 1690 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot169080013651500164018502150294294
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SNDK open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 23.

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 23

spot169080013651500164018502150142142
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot80011601520188022402600130%70%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 70.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot110013851510165019002170+$610K$610K
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 23

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.68-2.0116600.00091.98-2.02-0.32
0.65-2.0816900.00092.05-2.10-0.35
0.64-2.1117000.00102.07-2.12-0.36
0.62-2.1517200.00102.11-2.16-0.38
0.61-2.1617300.00102.13-2.17-0.39
0.56-2.2217750.00102.18-2.24-0.44
0.56-2.2317800.00102.19-2.24-0.44
0.54-2.2418000.00102.20-2.26-0.46
0.49-2.2618500.00102.21-2.28-0.51
0.44-2.2519000.00102.19-2.27-0.56
0.43-2.2319200.00102.17-2.25-0.58
0.36-2.1420000.00092.07-2.16-0.65
0.34-2.1120200.00092.04-2.13-0.66
0.31-2.0420600.00091.96-2.06-0.69
0.28-1.9621000.00081.88-1.98-0.72

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