Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 17, 1:22 AM ET

BKH max pain

Spot (delayed)$76.63
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$70-8.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.58±7.3% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.15190 puts / 1K calls
Call wall$80largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV3025.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$367Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $70

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$70-8.7%34d
Fri, Dec 18$80+4.4%62d
Fri, Feb 19$65-15.2%125d
Fri, May 21$60-21.7%216d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot704556677889100$3M$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 — 70 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot70455565758595769769
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BKH 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

spot70455565758595169169
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot5060708090100110%23%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 70455565758595+$266K−$266K
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
0.98-0.01450.00220.01-0.02-0.02
0.97-0.02500.00340.01-0.02-0.03
0.96-0.02550.00550.02-0.02-0.05
0.94-0.02600.00930.03-0.03-0.07
0.90-0.03650.01660.04-0.03-0.12
0.82-0.03700.03230.06-0.03-0.20
0.63-0.04750.06290.09-0.03-0.41
0.31-0.03800.05880.08-0.03-0.72
0.16-0.03850.03230.06-0.03-0.85
0.10-0.02900.01900.04-0.02-0.91
0.07-0.02950.01240.03-0.02-0.93
0.05-0.021000.00870.02-0.02-0.95

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

spot506580951108500
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

spot3550658095110866866
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 295 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: BKH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk