Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 22, 12:45 AM ET

AGNC max pain

Spot (delayed)$8.77
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$9+2.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.84±9.5% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.3397K puts / 73K calls
Call wall$10largest call OI
Put wall$9largest put OI
IV3027.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.6Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · 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.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 23$9+2.6%2d
Fri, Oct 30$9.5+8.3%9d
Fri, Nov 6$8.5-3.1%16d
Fri, Nov 13$8.5-3.1%23d
Fri, Nov 20$9+2.6%30d
Fri, Nov 27$11+25.4%37d
Fri, Dec 18$9+2.6%58d
Fri, Jan 15$10+14.0%86d
Fri, Mar 19$9+2.6%149d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot93610131720$70M$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 — 9 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot936912152057K57K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AGNC open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 18.

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

spot93691215202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot3610131720108%17%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 27.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot3691215+$1.5M−$1.5M
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 ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00—30.00420.000.00-0.01
1.00—40.00010.00-0.00-0.01
1.00—50.00100.00-0.00-0.02
1.00—60.00870.00-0.00-0.04
0.98-0.0070.07390.00-0.00-0.10
0.83-0.0080.38280.01-0.00-0.26
0.38-0.0090.45210.01-0.00-0.66
0.12-0.00100.19930.01-0.00-0.89
0.05-0.00110.08350.00-0.00-0.96
0.02-0.00120.04060.000.00-0.98
0.010.00130.02220.00—-0.99
0.010.00140.01320.00—-0.99
0.010.00150.00840.00—-1.00
0.000.00160.00560.00—-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot57911131518K0
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

spot15.58.511.514.519151K151K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 398K call contracts, 364K 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: AGNC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk