Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 25, 11:47 PM ET

ACDC max pain

Spot (delayed)$4.07
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$5+22.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.93±22.7% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.08282 puts / 4K calls
Call wall$7largest call OI
Put wall$5largest put OI
IV3081.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $3

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Nov 20$5+22.9%25d
Fri, Dec 18$4-1.7%53d
Fri, Feb 19$5+22.9%116d
Fri, May 21$4-1.7%207d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot513681113$2M$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 — 5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot513579122K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ACDC 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

spot51357912280280
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot35791113264%46%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 103.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 3246810+$2K−$2K
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
1.000.0010.00290.000.00-0.00
0.99-0.0020.02490.00-0.00-0.01
0.91-0.0030.15590.00-0.00-0.10
0.59-0.0140.41580.00-0.01-0.41
0.23-0.0150.32220.00-0.01-0.78
0.08-0.0060.14260.00-0.00-0.94
0.03-0.0070.05690.00-0.00-0.99
0.010.0080.02330.000.00-1.00
0.000.0090.01010.00—-1.00
0.000.00100.00460.00—-1.00
0.00—120.0011——-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 12 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot13579122K0
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

spot14710132K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 7K call contracts, 624 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: ACDC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk