Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 27, 2:17 AM ET

CASH max pain

Spot (delayed)$78.36
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$75-4.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.15±7.8% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI394.7414K puts / 35 calls
Call wall$80largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV3027.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.9Mper 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$75-4.3%24d
Fri, Dec 18$70-10.7%52d
Fri, Mar 19$75-4.3%143d
Thu, Jun 17$95+21.2%233d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot75606468727680$9M$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 — 75 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot7560657075805K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CASH 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

spot75606570758033
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot60646872768097%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 36.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot6065707580+$1.4M−$1.4M
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
0.98-0.01600.00540.01-0.01-0.02
0.95-0.02650.01150.02-0.02-0.05
0.89-0.03700.02570.04-0.03-0.11
0.72-0.04750.05400.07-0.04-0.28
0.40-0.04800.06760.08-0.04-0.60

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

spot55708090100110710
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

spot40608010012014010K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 255 call contracts, 19K 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: CASH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk