Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 8, 8:26 PM ET

COST max pain

Spot (delayed)$1,053
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:26 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Dec 4$995
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceMax pain from Cboe open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:26 PM ET
HowThe settle strike with the smallest total payout to option holders for the 2026-12-04 expiration, over 98 strikes carrying 5,188 open contracts. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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-5.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$52.63
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:26 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2026-12-04 expiration = 52.63 USD, 5.0% of 1,052.57 spot.
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±5.0% by Fri, Dec 4
Put/Call OI2.20
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:26 PM ET
How3,568 put contracts / 1,620 call contracts = 2.20 for the 2026-12-04 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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4K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$995
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceStrike with the most call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:26 PM ET
How995.00 for the 2026-12-04 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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largest call OI
Put wall$680
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceStrike with the most put open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:26 PM ET
How680.00 for the 2026-12-04 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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largest put OI
IV3023.4%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:26 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$6.0M
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceNet gamma exposure from Cboe greeks and open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 8, 8:26 PM ET
HowOver every strike with open interest for the 2026-12-04 expiration: (call gamma × call OI minus put gamma × put OI) × 100 × spot² × 1%, summed. Calls count as positive and puts as negative, a convention about who holds the other side, not a measurement.
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per 1% move · flip ≈ $995
Earnings · expectedThu, Dec 10
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceProjected from the company's own 8-K filing cadence
As ofwindow as stored 2026-11-08
HowReport date 2026-12-10. An estimate from the year-over-year reporting pattern, not a confirmed date.
usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: CPI release Tue, Nov 10 · Jobs report Fri, Dec 4 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Nov 13$1,008-4.3%5d
Fri, Nov 20$975-7.4%12d
Fri, Nov 27$995-5.5%19d
Fri, Dec 4$995-5.5%26d
Fri, Dec 11$1,025-2.6%33d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Dec 10)
Fri, Dec 18$945-10.2%40d
Fri, Jan 15$950-9.7%68d
Fri, Feb 19$920-12.6%103d
Fri, Mar 19$970-7.8%131d
Fri, Apr 16$960-8.8%159d
Fri, May 21$1,040-1.2%194d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot99560070881692410321140$56M$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 — 995 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 4

spot99560070077094510151065497497
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)COST open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 4. Showing the 60 largest of 98 strikes by open interest, 94.8% of the total.

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 4

spot995600700955100510551115527527
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 4

spot6107168229281034114081%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 4

spotflip 995800940990103010651110+$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 4

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.72-0.4110200.00500.98-0.41-0.28
0.70-0.4210250.00521.02-0.43-0.31
0.67-0.4310300.00541.06-0.44-0.34
0.64-0.4510350.00561.09-0.46-0.36
0.61-0.4610400.00571.12-0.47-0.39
0.58-0.4610450.00591.14-0.47-0.42
0.56-0.4710500.00601.15-0.48-0.45
0.53-0.4710550.00611.16-0.48-0.48
0.49-0.4710600.00611.17-0.48-0.51
0.47-0.4610650.00611.16-0.48-0.55
0.43-0.4610700.00611.15-0.47-0.58
0.40-0.4510750.00601.13-0.46-0.61
0.37-0.4310800.00591.11-0.45-0.64
0.35-0.4210850.00581.08-0.44-0.67
0.32-0.4110900.00561.05-0.42-0.70

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

spot580820915980104511502K0
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

spot440700890975107513208K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 142K call contracts, 149K 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.

Max pain, walls and gamma print only when an expiration holds at least 100 open contracts across 5 strikes, and max pain also needs to stay within 5% of spot when its single heaviest strike is removed. Below that the expiration reads as thin rather than printing a level one trade could move.

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