Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 10, 9:16 PM ET

BKF max pain

Spot (delayed)$39.21
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 9:16 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Dec 18Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.5
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 9:16 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2026-12-18 expiration = 4.50 USD, 11.5% of 39.21 spot.
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±11.5% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI5.13
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 9:16 PM ET
How41 put contracts / 8 call contracts = 5.13 for the 2026-12-18 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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41 puts / 8 calls
IV3027.5%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 9:16 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 49 open contracts across 11 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Event risk before this expiration: 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 20too thin10d
Fri, Dec 18too thin38d
Fri, Mar 19too thin129d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 49 open contracts across 11 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot3638404245482828
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BKF 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

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot36384143464840%16%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 26.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.81-0.02360.06320.03-0.02-0.23
0.75-0.02370.08210.04-0.02-0.29
0.67-0.02380.10450.04-0.02-0.37
0.56-0.02390.11920.05-0.02-0.48
0.45-0.02400.11370.05-0.02-0.59
0.36-0.02410.09730.05-0.02-0.67
0.30-0.02420.08090.04-0.02-0.73
0.25-0.02430.06770.04-0.02-0.77
0.19-0.02450.04920.03-0.02-0.82
0.15-0.02470.03760.03-0.02-0.85
0.14-0.02480.03340.03-0.02-0.87

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

spot3638404480
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

spot25343944492929
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 17 call contracts, 50 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.

Max pain, walls and gamma print only when an expiration holds at least 100 open contracts across 5 strikes, and max pain also needs to stay within 5% of spot when its single heaviest strike is removed. Below that the expiration reads as thin rather than printing a level one trade could move.

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: BKF workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk