Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 23, 10:33 PM ET

BELFB max pain

Spot (delayed)$199.51
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$230+15.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$30.05±15.1% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.9110 puts / 11 calls
Call wall$250largest call OI
Put wall$230largest put OI
IV3063.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$776per 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Nov 20$230+15.3%25d
Fri, Dec 18$200+0.2%53d
Fri, Jan 15$300+50.4%81d
Fri, Mar 19$170-14.8%144d
Thu, Jun 17$110-44.9%234d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot230180202224246268290$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 — 230 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot23018022025029055
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BELFB open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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, Nov 20

spot23018022025029055
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot180202224246268290118%63%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 67.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot180220250290+$2K−$2K
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.75-0.221800.00840.18-0.22-0.26
0.55-0.252000.01110.22-0.26-0.46
0.35-0.252200.00980.20-0.25-0.66
0.28-0.232300.00850.19-0.24-0.73
0.18-0.202500.00610.15-0.21-0.83
0.15-0.192600.00520.13-0.20-0.86
0.09-0.152900.00330.09-0.16-0.92

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

spot951551952603304101430
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

spot95140185260350440169169
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 155 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: BELFB workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk