Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 28, 3:39 AM ET

BIDU max pain

Spot (delayed)$78.22
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$95+21.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$17.08±21.8% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.9820K puts / 20K calls
Call wall$130largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3045.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$753Kper 1% move

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, Oct 30$78-0.3%2d
Fri, Nov 6$80+2.3%9d
Fri, Nov 13$91+16.3%16d
Fri, Nov 20$79+1.0%23d
Fri, Nov 27$84+7.4%30d
Fri, Dec 4$93+18.9%37d
Fri, Dec 18$95+21.5%51d
Fri, Jan 15$90+15.1%79d
Fri, Mar 19$95+21.5%142d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot955082114146178210$181M$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 — 95 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot9550801101401702006K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BIDU open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot9550801101401702001K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot508211414617821074%31%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 43.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot5080110140170200+$597K−$597K
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.96-0.00500.00380.04-0.01-0.04
0.92-0.01550.00630.07-0.01-0.07
0.87-0.01600.00940.10-0.02-0.13
0.81-0.02650.01260.13-0.02-0.20
0.73-0.02700.01550.16-0.03-0.28
0.64-0.03750.01760.18-0.03-0.37
0.55-0.03800.01850.19-0.03-0.46
0.46-0.03850.01840.19-0.03-0.55
0.38-0.03900.01750.19-0.03-0.64
0.31-0.03950.01610.17-0.03-0.71
0.25-0.021000.01440.16-0.03-0.77
0.21-0.021050.01260.14-0.02-0.83
0.17-0.021100.01100.12-0.02-0.87
0.14-0.021150.00940.11-0.02-0.91

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 32 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot50728087.5941025K0
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

spot4073859511517521K21K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 238K call contracts, 146K 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: BIDU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk