Intel (INTC) Options: What the November 20 Chain Shows

Monthly options expiries attract a lot of attention, and the November 20 expiry for Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) is no different. It is the first monthly expiry since Intel lost nearly a third of its value on October 30. Below is what the chain looked like as of the October 30 close, what the popular measures mean, and what they cannot tell you.

A chain built for a different Intel

Open interest is the number of option contracts that are still open. Each contract covers 100 shares. Most of the November 20 open interest was built in the weeks before earnings, when Intel traded far above where it is now, so the calls are stacked at strikes well above today’s price. With Intel near $66 after the October 30 session, roughly 96% of those calls are out of the money. Unless Intel recovers sharply in three weeks, they will expire worthless.

The put side is the mirror image. Puts bought as protection at strikes above today’s price are now in the money, and about 86% of put open interest would finish in the money at the October 30 price. Those buyers were paid for the insurance they bought.

Where the new INTC money went on October 30

Volume on the day of the fall says more about current sentiment than the old open interest does. The heaviest put trading on October 30 was at the $50 strike, about 26,600 contracts, followed by $60 and $55. Traders were buying protection, or speculating, on a further leg down. On the call side, the $70 strike is the nearest large concentration above the price, which is why some traders refer to it as the “call wall”.

None of this tells you who is long and who is short. A large put position at $50 can belong to a fund hedging a big Intel stake, or to someone selling insurance to collect the premium. The same contracts appear in both cases.

Max pain, explained

“Max pain” is the expiry price at which the total value of all open calls and puts would be smallest, in other words where option buyers as a group would lose the most. For the November 20 Intel chain it was around $90, a level the stock had left behind on October 30. That alone shows the limit of the concept. Max pain is a description of where positions were opened, not a forecast. There is no mechanism that pulls a stock toward it, and in a market that has just repriced by 28% it is close to meaningless.

Do options set the price of Intel stock?

Not on their own. Market makers who sell options hedge by trading the shares, and near expiry that hedging can nudge a stock toward heavily traded strikes for a day or two. That is a short-term effect around specific strikes. Over weeks and months, Intel’s price is set by the large holders of the shares themselves: index funds, pension funds, hedge funds and, since 2025, strategic shareholders such as the US government, SoftBank and Nvidia. What they react to is the business, not the options board.

For the November 20 expiry, the practical points are simple. Most call holders have already lost their premium. Put holders who bought protection before the earnings call are in profit. The strikes to watch in the next three weeks are the ones where new money traded on October 30, around $50 to $60 on the downside and $70 on the upside.

What to watch before November 20

• 13F filings due November 14: the first look at which institutions bought or sold Intel in the third quarter.
• Any customer announcement: Intel’s CEO said a couple of customers are ready to be announced within two quarters.
• Fresh open interest: we will update this chain in the week of November 16, once the new positioning is visible.

Sources: Intel (INTC) November 20, 2026 option chain open interest and volume as of the October 30 close, via ORTEX and Interactive Brokers; Intel Q3 2026 earnings call. Blue Team analysis. Figures are approximate and change daily.