Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 13, 2:16 AM ET

BLDP max pain

Spot (delayed)$2.66
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$3+12.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.05±39.5% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.193K puts / 18K calls
Call wall$5largest call OI
Put wall$3largest put OI
IV3081.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$15Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $1

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · 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, Aug 21$3+12.8%8d
Fri, Sep 18$3+12.8%36d
Fri, Nov 20$3+12.8%99d
Fri, Feb 19$3+12.8%190d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot313571012$11M$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 — 3 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot30.5258116K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BLDP 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

spot30.5258112121
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot13571012237%68%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 87.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 1136912+$7K$7K
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
1.000.50.01520.00-0.00-0.02
0.970.0010.04900.00-0.00-0.05
0.91-0.001.50.11400.00-0.00-0.10
0.81-0.0020.21810.00-0.00-0.20
0.50-0.0030.35030.01-0.00-0.53
0.29-0.0040.26920.01-0.00-0.74
0.19-0.0050.19380.00-0.00-0.85
0.14-0.0060.14600.00-0.00-0.90
0.11-0.0070.11500.000.00-0.94
0.09-0.0080.09370.00-0.96
0.07-0.0090.07840.00-0.98
0.06-0.00100.06700.00-0.00-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 12 strikes around the money — all 14 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot0.52581137K0
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

spot0.52581138K38K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 74K call contracts, 7K 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: BLDP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk