Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 28, 8:24 PM ET

CASY max pain

Spot (delayed)$670.02
Max pain · Fri, May 21$610-9.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$146.15±21.8% by Fri, May 21
Put/Call OI1.49295 puts / 198 calls
Call wall$760largest call OI
Put wall$610largest put OI
IV3037.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$71Kper 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, Nov 20$670-0.0%23d
Fri, Dec 18$650-3.0%51d
Fri, Feb 19$640-4.5%114d
Fri, May 21$610-9.0%205d
Fri, Dec 17$890+32.8%415d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot610370488606724842960$7M$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 — 610 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21

spot610370500580650720840126126
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CASY 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

spot61037050058065072084022
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21

spot37048860672484296046%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 36.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, May 21

spot370510590660730860+$105K−$105K
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, May 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.73-0.136000.00181.66-0.15-0.28
0.71-0.146100.00181.71-0.15-0.30
0.69-0.146200.00191.76-0.16-0.32
0.67-0.156300.00191.81-0.16-0.34
0.65-0.156400.00201.85-0.17-0.36
0.63-0.156500.00201.89-0.17-0.38
0.61-0.166600.00211.92-0.17-0.40
0.59-0.166700.00211.95-0.17-0.42
0.57-0.166800.00211.97-0.17-0.45
0.55-0.166900.00221.98-0.17-0.47
0.53-0.177000.00221.99-0.17-0.49
0.50-0.177100.00222.00-0.17-0.51
0.48-0.177200.00221.99-0.17-0.54
0.46-0.177300.00221.99-0.17-0.56
0.44-0.167400.00221.98-0.17-0.58

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 39 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot33057069081093011203880
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

spot3905406407408501000473473
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5K call contracts, 5K 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: CASY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk