Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 1:46 AM ET

BRUN max pain

Spot (delayed)$7.26
Max pain · Fri, Oct 30$12+65.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.33±18.3% by Fri, Oct 30
Put/Call OI0.501K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$9largest put OI
IV30137.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$10Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 30$12+65.3%4d
Fri, Nov 6$13+79.1%11d
Fri, Nov 13$11+51.5%18d
Fri, Nov 20$11+51.5%25d
Fri, Nov 27$12.5+72.2%32d
Fri, Dec 18$7.5+3.3%53d
Fri, Jan 15$12.5+72.2%81d
Fri, Feb 19$10+37.7%116d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1261116202530$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 — 12 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot1269.51214.517.5232K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BRUN open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 30.

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, Oct 30

spot1269.51214.517.523200200
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot6912141720620%115%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 160.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot79.511.513.515.518+$9K−$9K
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, Oct 30

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.83-0.0360.16510.00-0.03-0.16
0.59-0.0470.28410.00-0.04-0.40
0.33-0.0480.25840.00-0.04-0.67
0.23-0.038.50.21200.00-0.03-0.77
0.17-0.0390.16650.00-0.03-0.83
0.12-0.029.50.12800.00-0.02-0.88
0.09-0.02100.09760.00-0.02-0.92
0.06-0.0110.50.07430.00-0.01-0.94
0.05-0.01110.05670.00-0.01-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 9 strikes around the money — all 27 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot61012.51518232K0
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

spot2.5711.51620.52724K24K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 152K call contracts, 23K 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: BRUN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk