Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 25, 1:20 AM ET

AIPO max pain

Spot (delayed)$24.1
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$28+16.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.88±7.8% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI6.687K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$28largest call OI
Put wall$28largest put OI
IV3037.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$374Kper 1% move

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$28+16.2%26d
Fri, Dec 18$26+7.9%54d
Fri, Jan 15$27+12.0%82d
Fri, Apr 16$23-4.6%173d
Fri, Jan 21$24-0.4%453d
Fri, Jan 19$15-37.8%817d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot28172125293337$7M$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 — 28 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot281722252831344K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AIPO 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

spot28172225283134627627
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot172125293337112%33%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot172225283134+$143K−$143K
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
0.98-0.00170.00970.00-0.00-0.02
0.93-0.01200.04140.01-0.01-0.07
0.89-0.01210.06600.01-0.01-0.12
0.81-0.01220.10000.02-0.01-0.19
0.69-0.02230.13660.02-0.02-0.31
0.55-0.02240.15800.03-0.02-0.46
0.39-0.02250.15130.03-0.02-0.62
0.27-0.01260.12510.02-0.02-0.75
0.18-0.01270.09530.02-0.01-0.84
0.13-0.01280.07010.01-0.01-0.90
0.09-0.01290.05120.01-0.01-0.94
0.06-0.01300.03750.01-0.01-0.96
0.04-0.01310.02780.01-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 17 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2024283236457840
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

spot1521263136454K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 4K call contracts, 8K 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: AIPO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk