Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 28, 4:41 PM ET

AVT max pain

Spot (delayed)$92.15
Max pain · Fri, May 21$85-7.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$25.15±27.3% by Fri, May 21
Put/Call OI0.5690 puts / 161 calls
Call wall$150largest call OI
Put wall$75largest put OI
IV3057.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $75

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, Nov 20$85-7.8%23d
Fri, Dec 18$80-13.2%51d
Fri, Feb 19$90-2.3%114d
Fri, May 21$85-7.8%205d
Fri, Dec 17$45-51.2%415d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot857086102118134150$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 — 85 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21

spot857085105125145107107
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)AVT 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

spot85708510512514511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21

spot708610211813415048%43%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 46.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, May 21

spotflip 757085105125145+$6K−$6K
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
0.85-0.01700.00740.16-0.02-0.16
0.80-0.02750.00890.20-0.02-0.21
0.75-0.02800.01020.22-0.03-0.27
0.69-0.02850.01140.25-0.03-0.33
0.56-0.03950.01270.27-0.03-0.46
0.50-0.031000.01290.28-0.03-0.52
0.45-0.031050.01280.27-0.03-0.58
0.34-0.031150.01190.25-0.03-0.69
0.30-0.031200.01120.24-0.02-0.74
0.26-0.021250.01040.22-0.02-0.79
0.22-0.021300.00960.20-0.02-0.83
0.19-0.021350.00870.18-0.01-0.87

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 14 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot4060801001201401K0
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

spot3560851101351K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 4K 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: AVT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk