Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 11:51 PM ET

AUGO max pain

Spot (delayed)$77.13
Max pain · Fri, May 21$85+10.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$30.95±40.1% by Fri, May 21
Put/Call OI0.72290 puts / 400 calls
Call wall$45largest call OI
Put wall$125largest put OI
IV3067.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2Kper 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, Nov 20$80+3.7%25d
Fri, Dec 18$65-15.7%53d
Fri, Feb 19$70-9.2%116d
Fri, May 21$85+10.2%207d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8545617793109125$2M$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 — 85 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21

spot8545658095110125192192
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AUGO open contracts per strike for Fri, May 21.

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, May 21

spot85456580951101251010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21

spot4561779310912572%66%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 70.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, May 21

spot45658095110125+$7K−$7K
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, May 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.88-0.02450.00470.10-0.02-0.11
0.84-0.02500.00560.13-0.02-0.14
0.76-0.03600.00760.17-0.03-0.23
0.71-0.03650.00840.19-0.03-0.27
0.66-0.03700.00910.20-0.03-0.32
0.61-0.04750.00950.22-0.03-0.37
0.56-0.04800.00980.22-0.04-0.42
0.51-0.04850.01000.23-0.04-0.47
0.47-0.04900.01000.23-0.04-0.51
0.43-0.04950.00980.22-0.03-0.55
0.39-0.041000.00960.22-0.03-0.59
0.35-0.031050.00930.21-0.03-0.63
0.32-0.031100.00900.20-0.03-0.66

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 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

spot3055801051301558170
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

spot305580105130155850850
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 1K 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: AUGO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk