Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 10:04 AM ET

CADL max pain

Spot (delayed)$8.02
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$9+12.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.08±25.9% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.29559 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$9largest call OI
Put wall$8largest put OI
IV30102.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$10Kper 1% move

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$9+12.2%25d
Fri, Dec 18$6-25.2%53d
Fri, Jan 15$8-0.3%81d
Fri, Apr 16$11+37.1%172d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot96811131618$1M$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 — 9 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot96911131518636636
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CADL 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

spot96911131518400400
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot6811131618433%82%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 117.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot6911131518+$5K−$5K
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
0.85-0.0160.08530.01-0.01-0.15
0.57-0.0280.17150.01-0.02-0.43
0.40-0.0290.17060.01-0.02-0.60
0.27-0.01100.14420.01-0.01-0.73
0.18-0.01110.11110.01-0.01-0.82
0.12-0.01120.08160.00-0.01-0.89
0.07-0.01130.05850.00-0.01-0.93
0.05-0.00140.04140.00-0.01-0.96
0.03-0.00150.02920.00-0.00-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 9 strikes around the money — all 11 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot481216223K0
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

spot16111621263K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 11K call contracts, 3K 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: CADL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk