Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 1:54 AM ET

CDW max pain

Spot (delayed)$165.11
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$150-9.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$20.6±12.5% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.40664 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$155largest call OI
Put wall$135largest put OI
IV3055.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$497Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $155

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$150-9.2%25d
Fri, Dec 18$130-21.3%53d
Fri, Mar 19$140-15.2%144d
Thu, Jun 17$105-36.4%234d
Fri, Dec 17$150-9.2%417d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot150100120140160180200$6M$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 — 150 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot150100120140160180200569569
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CDW 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

spot150100120140160180200502502
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot100120140160180200120%54%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 56.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 155100120140160180200+$170K−$170K
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
0.91-0.091300.00510.07-0.09-0.09
0.88-0.111350.00640.09-0.11-0.12
0.84-0.121400.00800.11-0.12-0.15
0.80-0.141450.00980.13-0.14-0.20
0.74-0.161500.01150.15-0.16-0.25
0.68-0.171550.01310.16-0.17-0.32
0.61-0.181600.01440.17-0.18-0.39
0.54-0.181650.01520.18-0.19-0.46
0.46-0.181700.01530.18-0.18-0.54
0.39-0.171750.01490.17-0.18-0.61
0.32-0.161800.01400.16-0.16-0.68
0.26-0.151850.01260.15-0.15-0.74
0.21-0.131900.01110.13-0.13-0.80
0.16-0.111950.00960.11-0.11-0.84
0.13-0.092000.00810.10-0.10-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 21 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot70951201451701953K0
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

spot55851151451752103K3K
■ 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.

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