Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 11, 12:01 AM ET

ARCC max pain

Spot (delayed)$18.6
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$20+7.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.33±7.1% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.2713K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$16largest put OI
IV3016.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$71Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · 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 16$19+2.1%5d
Fri, Nov 20$19+2.1%40d
Fri, Dec 18$20+7.5%68d
Fri, Jan 15$20+7.5%96d
Fri, Mar 19$20+7.5%159d
Fri, May 21$20+7.5%222d
Fri, Aug 20$17-8.6%313d
Fri, Jan 21$20+7.5%467d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot20101317202427$10M$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot201014172023267K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ARCC 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

spot20101417202326292292
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot14161821232557%15%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 15.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot101417202326+$419K−$419K
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
0.99-0.00120.00760.00-0.00-0.02
0.98-0.00130.01250.00-0.00-0.03
0.97-0.00140.02130.01-0.00-0.05
0.95-0.00150.03770.01-0.00-0.07
0.92-0.00160.06990.01-0.00-0.13
0.85-0.00170.13640.02-0.00-0.23
0.69-0.00180.25550.03-0.00-0.44
0.40-0.00190.29280.03-0.00-0.72
0.20-0.00200.18680.02-0.00-0.86
0.10-0.00210.10540.01-0.00-0.93
0.06-0.00220.06170.01-0.00-0.95
0.04-0.00230.03880.01-0.00-0.97
0.03-0.00240.02580.01-0.00-0.98
0.02-0.00250.01790.00-0.00-0.98
0.01-0.00260.01300.00-0.00-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 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

spot12151821242711K0
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

spot31217222724K24K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 53K call contracts, 85K 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: ARCC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk