HowThe settle strike with the smallest total payout to option holders for the 2026-12-18 expiration, over 351 strikes carrying 116,175 open contracts. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 8:04 PM ET
How57,452 put contracts / 58,723 call contracts = 0.98 for the 2026-12-18 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
SourceNet gamma exposure from Cboe greeks and open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 8:04 PM ET
HowOver every strike with open interest for the 2026-12-18 expiration: (call gamma × call OI minus put gamma × put OI) × 100 × spot² × 1%, summed. Calls count as positive and puts as negative, a convention about who holds the other side, not a measurement.
Event risk before this expiration:Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 · FOMC decision Wed, Dec 9 · CPI release Thu, Dec 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.
■ 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 — 1090 — is the max pain price.
Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SNDK open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 18. Showing the 60 largest of 351 strikes by open interest, 59.3% of the total.
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, Dec 18
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed). Showing the 60 largest of 168 strikes by volume, 91.1% of the total.
Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 89.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.
Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18
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, Dec 18
Call Δ
Call Θ
Strike
Γ
Vega
Put Θ
Put Δ
0.80
-0.98
700
0.0010
0.79
-1.00
-0.20
0.76
-1.07
730
0.0012
0.87
-1.09
-0.24
0.73
-1.12
750
0.0013
0.92
-1.14
-0.27
0.66
-1.22
800
0.0014
1.02
-1.24
-0.34
0.60
-1.27
840
0.0015
1.07
-1.28
-0.41
0.58
-1.28
850
0.0016
1.08
-1.29
-0.42
0.56
-1.28
860
0.0016
1.09
-1.29
-0.44
0.53
-1.29
880
0.0016
1.10
-1.30
-0.47
0.50
-1.28
900
0.0016
1.11
-1.29
-0.50
0.48
-1.28
910
0.0016
1.11
-1.28
-0.52
0.47
-1.27
920
0.0016
1.10
-1.28
-0.53
0.42
-1.24
950
0.0016
1.09
-1.25
-0.58
0.35
-1.16
1000
0.0016
1.03
-1.16
-0.65
0.31
-1.10
1030
0.0015
0.98
-1.10
-0.69
0.30
-1.08
1040
0.0015
0.96
-1.08
-0.71
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
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.
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.
Max pain, walls and gamma print only when an expiration holds at least 100 open contracts across 5 strikes, and max pain also needs to stay within 5% of spot when its single heaviest strike is removed. Below that the expiration reads as thin rather than printing a level one trade could move.
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.