Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 22, 7:43 PM ET

SNOW max pain

Spot (delayed)$338.46
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$280-17.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$52.63±15.5% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.6413K puts / 20K calls
Call wall$350largest call OI
Put wall$310largest put OI
IV3046.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $165

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$335-1.0%3d
Fri, Oct 2$330-2.5%10d
Fri, Oct 9$340+0.5%17d
Fri, Oct 16$310-8.4%24d
Fri, Oct 23$350+3.4%31d
Fri, Oct 30$335-1.0%38d
Fri, Nov 20$280-17.3%59d
Fri, Dec 18$220-35.0%87d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot28075162249336423510$365M$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 — 280 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot280751401852603504404K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)SNOW 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

spot28075140185260350440359359
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot75162249336423510184%47%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 48.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 165135175230310390470+$2.6M$2.6M
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
0.89-0.102700.00270.25-0.11-0.11
0.86-0.122800.00330.31-0.13-0.14
0.82-0.142900.00390.36-0.15-0.18
0.77-0.173000.00450.41-0.17-0.23
0.72-0.183100.00500.46-0.19-0.28
0.66-0.203200.00550.50-0.21-0.34
0.60-0.213300.00580.53-0.22-0.40
0.55-0.223400.00600.54-0.22-0.46
0.49-0.223500.00600.54-0.22-0.52
0.43-0.223600.00590.54-0.22-0.58
0.38-0.213700.00570.52-0.21-0.63
0.33-0.203800.00540.49-0.20-0.69
0.28-0.193900.00510.46-0.19-0.73
0.24-0.174000.00460.42-0.17-0.78
0.20-0.164100.00420.39-0.16-0.81

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 52 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot170245302.5337.5367.54155K0
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

spot6011517025034042017K17K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 286K call contracts, 254K 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: SNOW workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk