Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 11, 1:44 AM ET

CAT max pain

Spot (delayed)$800.98
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$820+2.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$111.6±13.9% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.1512K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$940largest call OI
Put wall$720largest put OI
IV3043.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.6Mper 1% move
Earnings · expectedWed, Oct 28usually before the open

Event risk before this expiration: CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · 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 16$820+2.4%5d
Fri, Oct 23$820+2.4%12d
Fri, Oct 30$815+1.8%19d← 1st expiry after earnings (Wed, Oct 28)
Fri, Nov 6$810+1.1%26d
Fri, Nov 13$840+4.9%33d
Fri, Nov 20$810+1.1%40d
Fri, Nov 27$805+0.5%47d
Fri, Dec 18$820+2.4%68d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot820270524778103212861540$574M$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 — 820 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot82027049060074086010201K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CAT 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

spot82027049060074086010205353
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot270524778103212861540122%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 39.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot4605606708008901060+$1.1M−$1.1M
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
0.83-0.256900.00180.88-0.25-0.17
0.81-0.277000.00190.94-0.27-0.19
0.77-0.307200.00221.07-0.30-0.23
0.72-0.337400.00241.19-0.34-0.28
0.66-0.367600.00261.28-0.36-0.34
0.61-0.387800.00281.34-0.38-0.40
0.58-0.387900.00291.37-0.39-0.43
0.55-0.398000.00291.39-0.39-0.46
0.52-0.398100.00291.39-0.40-0.49
0.49-0.398200.00291.40-0.40-0.52
0.46-0.398300.00291.39-0.40-0.54
0.44-0.388400.00291.38-0.39-0.57
0.41-0.388500.00281.36-0.39-0.60
0.38-0.378600.00281.34-0.38-0.63
0.36-0.368700.00271.31-0.38-0.66

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot52070077584592010502K0
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

spot23049069083096012007K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 115K call contracts, 120K 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: CAT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk