Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 15, 1:48 AM ET

ALDX max pain

Spot (delayed)$0.8
Max pain · Fri, Oct 30$0.5-37.5% vs spot
Put/Call OI0.0310 puts / 293 calls
Call wall$1largest call OI
Put wall$2largest put OI
IV30127.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$190per 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 16$1+25.0%1d
Fri, Oct 23$0.5-37.5%8d
Fri, Oct 30$0.5-37.5%15d
Fri, Nov 20$1+25.0%36d
Fri, Dec 18$1.5+87.5%64d
Fri, Mar 19$1.5+87.5%155d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot0.5112233$1M$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 — 0.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot0.50.511.522.53224224
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ALDX open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 30.

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 30

spot0.50.511.522.5311
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot112233819%121%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 339.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot0.512+$173−$173
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 30

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.90-0.000.50.48730.00-0.00-0.11
0.36-0.0011.20630.00-0.00-0.65
0.20-0.001.50.63350.00-0.00-0.81
0.15-0.0020.44290.00-0.00-0.85
0.13-0.002.50.35290.00-0.00-0.88
0.12-0.0030.30060.00-0.00-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot0.511.5238140
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

spot0.51.52.541K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 573 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: ALDX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk