Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 30, 12:24 AM ET

BX max pain

Spot (delayed)$119.95
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$135+12.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.95±10.8% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.5436K puts / 24K calls
Call wall$160largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3035.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.2Mper 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$117-2.5%1d
Fri, Nov 6$116-3.3%8d
Fri, Nov 13$117-2.5%15d
Fri, Nov 20$155+29.2%22d
Fri, Nov 27$115-4.1%29d
Fri, Dec 4$116-3.3%36d
Fri, Dec 18$135+12.5%50d
Fri, Jan 15$130+8.4%78d
Fri, Feb 19$125+4.2%113d
Fri, Mar 19$120+0.0%141d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot13555100145190235280$294M$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 — 135 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot13555901251601952605K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)BX 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

spot1355590125160195260305305
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot55100145190235280109%32%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 36.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot5585115145175210+$614K−$614K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00—850.00080.00-0.01-0.03
0.99—900.00350.01-0.02-0.04
0.96-0.02950.00830.03-0.02-0.06
0.91-0.031000.01230.07-0.03-0.10
0.84-0.031050.01450.11-0.04-0.16
0.76-0.041100.01840.14-0.05-0.25
0.65-0.061150.02250.16-0.06-0.35
0.53-0.061200.02490.18-0.06-0.47
0.41-0.061250.02490.17-0.06-0.60
0.29-0.051300.02250.15-0.05-0.72
0.20-0.041350.01840.12-0.03-0.82
0.12-0.031400.01370.09-0.02-0.90
0.07-0.021450.00940.06-0.01-0.96
0.04-0.011500.00600.04—-0.99
0.02-0.011550.00370.03—-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 38 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot901061131201271341K0
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

spot559011613016520040K40K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 179K call contracts, 329K 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: BX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk