Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 28, 3:34 AM ET

ALAB max pain

Spot (delayed)$288.82
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$290+0.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$111.65±38.7% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI1.8111K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$280largest call OI
Put wall$140largest put OI
IV3090.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$461Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: 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 30$267.5-7.4%2d
Fri, Nov 6$300+3.9%9d
Fri, Nov 13$310+7.3%16d
Fri, Nov 20$270-6.5%23d
Fri, Nov 27$305+5.6%30d
Fri, Dec 4$295+2.1%37d
Fri, Dec 18$280-3.1%51d
Fri, Jan 15$190-34.2%79d
Fri, Mar 19$290+0.4%142d
Fri, Apr 16$300+3.9%170d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot290100220340460580700$170M$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 — 290 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot2901001802603604705902K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ALAB open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot2901001802603604705903030
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot100220340460580700106%79%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 78.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot100180260360470590+$145K−$145K
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.79-0.142200.00200.52-0.14-0.21
0.76-0.142300.00210.55-0.15-0.24
0.73-0.152400.00230.58-0.16-0.26
0.71-0.162500.00240.61-0.17-0.29
0.68-0.172600.00250.64-0.18-0.32
0.65-0.182700.00260.66-0.18-0.35
0.63-0.182800.00260.68-0.19-0.37
0.60-0.192900.00270.69-0.19-0.40
0.57-0.193000.00270.70-0.19-0.43
0.55-0.193100.00280.71-0.19-0.45
0.52-0.193200.00280.71-0.20-0.48
0.50-0.193300.00280.71-0.20-0.51
0.47-0.193400.00280.71-0.19-0.53
0.45-0.193500.00280.71-0.19-0.55
0.43-0.193600.00270.70-0.19-0.57

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 59 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot175252.5287.5322.53804453K0
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

spot551251952854005606K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 124K call contracts, 116K 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: ALAB workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk