Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 22, 2:58 AM ET

COHU max pain

Spot (delayed)$61.5
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$55-10.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$15.9±25.9% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI2.243K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3073.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$69Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $22.5
Earnings · expectedWed, Oct 28usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · 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, Oct 16$50-18.7%24d
Fri, Nov 20$55-10.6%59d← 1st expiry after earnings (Wed, Oct 28)
Fri, Dec 18$25-59.3%87d
Fri, Feb 19$40-35.0%150d
Fri, May 21$45-26.8%241d
Fri, Dec 17$35-43.1%451d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot551533516987105$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 — 55 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot5515305070902K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)COHU 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

spot551530507090724724
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot1533516987105226%77%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 82.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 22.51530507090+$119K$119K
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
0.97-0.01250.00200.01-0.01-0.03
0.96-0.02300.00320.02-0.02-0.04
0.94-0.02350.00500.03-0.03-0.06
0.90-0.03400.00760.04-0.03-0.10
0.84-0.04450.01110.06-0.04-0.15
0.77-0.05500.01480.07-0.05-0.23
0.68-0.06550.01790.09-0.06-0.32
0.58-0.06600.01960.10-0.06-0.42
0.48-0.07650.01990.10-0.07-0.51
0.40-0.06700.01900.09-0.06-0.60
0.32-0.06750.01750.09-0.06-0.68
0.26-0.06800.01570.08-0.05-0.74
0.21-0.05850.01380.07-0.05-0.79
0.17-0.04900.01190.06-0.04-0.83
0.14-0.04950.01030.06-0.04-0.86

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 20 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot520355575952K0
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

spot2.5153055801052K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 7K 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: COHU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk