Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 27, 3:26 PM ET

CRH max pain

Spot (delayed)$85.31
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$90+5.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.65±11.3% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.983K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$95largest call OI
Put wall$90largest put OI
IV3039.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$53Kper 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, Oct 30$81-5.1%3d
Fri, Nov 6$83-2.7%10d
Fri, Nov 13$85-0.4%17d
Fri, Nov 20$85-0.4%24d
Fri, Nov 27$79-7.4%31d
Fri, Dec 4$80-6.2%38d
Fri, Dec 18$90+5.5%52d
Fri, Jan 15$92.5+8.4%80d
Fri, Mar 19$85-0.4%143d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot90557799121143165$19M$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 — 90 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot905577.590105130165601601
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CRH 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

spot905577.59010513016555
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot55779912114316589%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 37.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot5577.590105130165+$63K−$63K
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
0.96-0.01600.00500.03-0.02-0.04
0.93-0.02650.00800.04-0.02-0.07
0.89-0.03700.01280.06-0.03-0.12
0.82-0.03750.01970.09-0.04-0.19
0.77-0.0477.50.02370.10-0.04-0.24
0.70-0.04800.02780.11-0.04-0.30
0.63-0.0482.50.03140.12-0.04-0.38
0.55-0.04850.03360.13-0.04-0.46
0.46-0.0487.50.03400.13-0.04-0.55
0.38-0.04900.03260.12-0.04-0.63
0.31-0.0492.50.02980.11-0.04-0.70
0.26-0.04950.02640.10-0.04-0.76
0.21-0.0397.50.02290.09-0.03-0.80
0.17-0.031000.01970.08-0.03-0.84
0.12-0.031050.01440.06-0.02-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 26 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot65758187931002490
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

spot42.57282921021554K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 20K call contracts, 14K 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: CRH workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk