Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 11, 1:45 AM ET

BAC max pain

Spot (delayed)$54.42
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$55+1.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.79±8.8% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.05171K puts / 163K calls
Call wall$70largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV3026.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.7Mper 1% move
Earnings · expectedWed, Oct 14usually after the close

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$55+1.1%5d← 1st expiry after earnings (Wed, Oct 14)
Fri, Oct 23$56+2.9%12d
Fri, Oct 30$55+1.1%19d
Fri, Nov 6$54-0.8%26d
Fri, Nov 13$53-2.6%33d
Fri, Nov 20$57.5+5.7%40d
Fri, Nov 27$54-0.8%47d
Fri, Dec 18$55+1.1%68d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot55183145587285$465M$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 — 55 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot5518324046557053K53K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BAC 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

spot551832404655704K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot18314558728591%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot183240465570+$1.5M−$1.5M
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
0.94-0.01450.01720.03-0.01-0.07
0.92-0.01460.02150.04-0.01-0.09
0.90-0.01470.02660.04-0.01-0.11
0.87-0.01480.03250.05-0.01-0.14
0.84-0.01490.03900.06-0.01-0.18
0.80-0.01500.04590.07-0.01-0.22
0.66-0.0252.50.06200.09-0.02-0.36
0.49-0.02550.06990.09-0.02-0.52
0.33-0.0157.50.06450.09-0.01-0.69
0.19-0.01600.04910.07-0.01-0.82
0.10-0.0162.50.03200.04-0.01-0.91
0.06-0.00650.01920.03-0.01-0.97
0.03-0.0067.50.01170.02-0.00-0.99
0.02-0.00700.00760.01—-1.00
0.01-0.0072.50.00540.01—-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 35 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot254452.56067.57541K0
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

spot183645546372.5200K200K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1.1M call contracts, 1.3M 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: BAC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk