Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 24, 11:14 PM ET

COPJ max pain

Spot (delayed)$37.26
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$30-19.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.4±19.9% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.013 puts / 534 calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$35largest put OI
IV3039.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$17Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Nov 20$45+20.8%26d
Fri, Dec 18$45+20.8%54d
Fri, Mar 19$30-19.5%145d
Thu, Jun 17$36-3.4%235d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot30253443526170$1M$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 — 30 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot302535444860334334
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)COPJ open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot30253544486044
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot25344352617078%36%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 39.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot2535444860+$10K−$10K
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.96-0.01250.01080.02-0.01-0.10
0.87-0.01300.02840.05-0.01-0.21
0.83-0.01310.03250.06-0.01-0.24
0.80-0.01320.03630.07-0.01-0.27
0.67-0.01350.04390.08-0.01-0.40
0.62-0.01360.04490.09-0.01-0.44
0.45-0.01400.04280.09-0.01-0.61
0.42-0.01410.04140.09-0.01-0.65
0.33-0.01440.03650.08-0.01-0.74
0.31-0.01450.03470.08-0.01-0.77
0.29-0.01460.03300.08-0.01-0.79
0.27-0.01470.03140.07-0.01-0.81
0.25-0.01480.02980.07-0.01-0.82

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2536414651603500
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

spot203440465270350350
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 382 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: COPJ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk