Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 27, 6:53 PM ET

CRML max pain

Spot (delayed)$7.21
Max pain · Fri, Oct 30$7-2.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.6±8.3% by Fri, Oct 30
Put/Call OI0.657K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$8largest call OI
Put wall$6.5largest put OI
IV3096.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$69Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $7

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 30$7-2.8%3d
Fri, Nov 6$7-2.8%10d
Fri, Nov 13$8+11.0%17d
Fri, Nov 20$10+38.8%24d
Fri, Nov 27$10+38.8%31d
Fri, Dec 4$7-2.8%38d
Fri, Dec 18$7.5+4.1%52d
Fri, Jan 15$10+38.8%80d
Fri, Feb 19$7.5+4.1%115d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot7259121619$11M$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 — 7 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot71.546.5911.5192K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CRML open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 30.

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, Oct 30

spot71.546.5911.5191K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot578101113434%97%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 110.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spotflip 735.57.59.511.519+$50K−$50K
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, Oct 30

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.013.50.00080.00-0.00-0.00
1.00-0.0140.00240.00-0.00-0.01
1.00-0.014.50.00700.00-0.00-0.01
0.99-0.0150.02070.00-0.01-0.02
0.98-0.015.50.05870.00-0.01-0.04
0.95-0.0260.15420.00-0.02-0.07
0.86-0.036.50.34840.00-0.03-0.17
0.63-0.0570.60860.00-0.04-0.39
0.33-0.047.50.56710.00-0.04-0.68
0.14-0.0380.32060.00-0.03-0.85
0.07-0.018.50.16620.00-0.01-0.92
0.04-0.0190.09000.00-0.01-0.95
0.02-0.019.50.05180.00-0.01-0.97
0.01-0.00100.03140.00-0.00-0.98
0.01-0.0010.50.02000.00-0.00-0.98

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

spot1.54.56.58.510.5135K0
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

spot1.558.51217.53587K87K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 241K call contracts, 129K 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: CRML workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk