Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 20, 12:39 AM ET

ADBE max pain

Spot (delayed)$249.26
Max pain · Fri, Oct 23$255+2.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$24.88±10.0% by Fri, Oct 23
Put/Call OI1.141K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$250largest call OI
Put wall$240largest put OI
IV3038.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$168Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$255+2.3%6d
Fri, Oct 2$270+8.3%13d
Fri, Oct 9$280+12.3%20d
Fri, Oct 16$250+0.3%27d
Fri, Oct 23$255+2.3%34d
Fri, Oct 30$260+4.3%41d
Fri, Nov 20$260+4.3%62d
Fri, Dec 18$240-3.7%90d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot255165208251294337380$11M$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 — 255 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot255165200235270305340168168
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ADBE open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 23.

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, Oct 23

spot255165200235270305340339339
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot16520825129433738096%30%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 40.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 23

spot165200235270305340+$93K$93K
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, Oct 23

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.90-0.082150.00570.14-0.08-0.10
0.86-0.102200.00710.17-0.10-0.14
0.82-0.112250.00860.20-0.11-0.18
0.77-0.132300.01000.23-0.13-0.23
0.71-0.152350.01120.26-0.15-0.29
0.65-0.162400.01220.28-0.16-0.35
0.59-0.172450.01290.30-0.17-0.41
0.52-0.172500.01320.31-0.17-0.48
0.46-0.172550.01320.31-0.17-0.55
0.40-0.172600.01280.30-0.17-0.61
0.34-0.162650.01210.28-0.16-0.67
0.28-0.152700.01120.26-0.15-0.73
0.24-0.132750.01010.24-0.14-0.78
0.20-0.122800.00900.21-0.13-0.82
0.16-0.112850.00790.19-0.11-0.85

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 40 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot145215242.5265287.53302K0
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

spot10018525532544058028K28K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 368K call contracts, 240K 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: ADBE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk