Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 8, 8:10 PM ET

CAL max pain

Spot (delayed)$12.69
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:10 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, May 21Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.73
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:10 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2027-05-21 expiration = 4.73 USD, 37.2% of 12.69 spot.
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±37.2% by Fri, May 21
Put/Call OI0.41
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:10 PM ET
How11 put contracts / 27 call contracts = 0.41 for the 2027-05-21 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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11 puts / 27 calls
IV3062.3%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:10 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol
Earnings · expectedTue, Dec 8
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceProjected from the company's own 8-K filing cadence
As ofwindow as stored 2026-11-08
HowReport date 2026-12-08. An estimate from the year-over-year reporting pattern, not a confirmed date.
usually before the open

Too thin to read: 38 open contracts across 8 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Nov 20$12.5-1.5%12d
Fri, Dec 18$12.5-1.5%40d← 1st expiry after earnings (Tue, Dec 8)
Fri, Feb 19$15+18.2%103d
Fri, May 21too thin194d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 38 open contracts across 8 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21

spot512.517.522.51616
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CAL open contracts per strike for Fri, May 21.

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, May 21

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21

spot5913172125109%61%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 64.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, May 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.0050.01060.01-0.00-0.04
0.91-0.007.50.02540.02-0.00-0.11
0.64-0.0112.50.06360.04-0.01-0.38
0.48-0.01150.06960.04-0.01-0.55
0.35-0.0117.50.06450.03-0.01-0.69
0.26-0.01200.05490.03-0.01-0.79
0.19-0.0022.50.04510.03-0.00-0.87
0.14-0.00250.03680.02-0.00-0.93

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

spot2.57.512.517.522.527.55K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.527.55K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 9K call contracts, 8K 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.

Max pain, walls and gamma print only when an expiration holds at least 100 open contracts across 5 strikes, and max pain also needs to stay within 5% of spot when its single heaviest strike is removed. Below that the expiration reads as thin rather than printing a level one trade could move.

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: CAL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk