Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 2, 6:37 PM ET

CVS max pain

Spot (delayed)$88.68
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$92+3.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.38±8.3% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI1.0425K puts / 24K calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$85largest put OI
IV3039.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.2Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Nov 6$90+1.5%4d
Fri, Nov 13$90+1.5%11d
Fri, Nov 20$92+3.7%18d
Fri, Nov 27$90+1.5%25d
Fri, Dec 4$92+3.7%32d
Fri, Dec 11too thin39d
Fri, Dec 18one strike decides46d
Fri, Jan 15one strike decides74d
Fri, Feb 19$90+1.5%109d
Fri, Mar 19$90+1.5%137d
Fri, May 21$87.5-1.3%200d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot92386287111136160$141M$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 — 92 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot9237.567.585931021307K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CVS 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

spot92408387.592961054K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot386287111136160180%43%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 46.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot37.567.58593102130+$1.9M−$1.9M
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
0.76-0.08830.03300.06-0.08-0.25
0.72-0.09840.03570.07-0.09-0.28
0.68-0.09850.03810.07-0.09-0.32
0.64-0.10860.04020.07-0.10-0.36
0.60-0.10870.04190.08-0.10-0.40
0.58-0.1087.50.04260.08-0.10-0.42
0.56-0.10880.04310.08-0.10-0.44
0.52-0.10890.04390.08-0.10-0.49
0.47-0.10900.04400.08-0.10-0.53
0.43-0.10910.04370.08-0.10-0.57
0.39-0.10920.04280.08-0.10-0.62
0.37-0.0992.50.04220.07-0.09-0.64
0.34-0.09930.04150.07-0.09-0.66
0.31-0.09940.03960.07-0.09-0.70
0.27-0.08950.03740.07-0.08-0.74

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 57 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot5086931011101455K0
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

spot22.555788910011514K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 152K call contracts, 147K 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: CVS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk