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

SNDK max pain

Spot (delayed)$1,819
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$1,500-17.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$451.85±24.8% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI1.4232K puts / 22K calls
Call wall$2,350largest call OI
Put wall$1,000largest put OI
IV3070.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4.1Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $2,590
Earnings · expectedThu, Nov 5usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 — 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

spot15003209621604224628883530$3.3B$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 — 1500 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot150032088011001340150019001K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SNDK open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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, Nov 20

spot15003208801100134015001900348348
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot3209621604224628883530155%76%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 75.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 259088010801300144017002300+$1.6M$1.6M
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.76-1.3915200.00062.32-1.40-0.24
0.74-1.4515500.00062.42-1.46-0.26
0.71-1.5215900.00062.54-1.53-0.29
0.70-1.5416000.00062.57-1.55-0.30
0.67-1.6116500.00062.69-1.63-0.33
0.64-1.6717000.00072.80-1.69-0.37
0.60-1.7217500.00072.88-1.74-0.40
0.57-1.7618000.00072.93-1.78-0.44
0.53-1.7818500.00072.96-1.80-0.47
0.50-1.7919000.00072.97-1.81-0.51
0.49-1.7919200.00072.97-1.81-0.52
0.44-1.7720000.00072.93-1.80-0.57
0.41-1.7520500.00072.88-1.78-0.60
0.38-1.7221000.00072.83-1.75-0.63
0.28-1.5423000.00062.50-1.59-0.73

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