Event risk before this expiration: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.
■ 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 — 87.5 — is the max pain price.
Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)CVS open contracts per strike for Fri, May 21.
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, May 21
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).
Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 33.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.
Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, May 21
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, May 21
Call Δ
Call Θ
Strike
Γ
Vega
Put Θ
Put Δ
0.95
-0.00
60
0.0046
0.07
-0.01
-0.06
0.91
-0.01
65
0.0068
0.11
-0.01
-0.10
0.87
-0.01
70
0.0096
0.14
-0.01
-0.14
0.80
-0.01
75
0.0125
0.18
-0.02
-0.21
0.73
-0.02
80
0.0152
0.22
-0.02
-0.28
0.69
-0.02
82.5
0.0164
0.23
-0.02
-0.33
0.64
-0.02
85
0.0173
0.24
-0.02
-0.37
0.60
-0.02
87.5
0.0181
0.25
-0.02
-0.42
0.55
-0.02
90
0.0186
0.26
-0.02
-0.46
0.51
-0.02
92.5
0.0188
0.26
-0.02
-0.51
0.46
-0.02
95
0.0188
0.26
-0.02
-0.56
0.42
-0.02
97.5
0.0185
0.25
-0.02
-0.60
0.38
-0.02
100
0.0181
0.25
-0.02
-0.64
0.30
-0.02
105
0.0166
0.23
-0.02
-0.72
0.24
-0.02
110
0.0147
0.20
-0.01
-0.79
Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 21 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.
Stacked — layer the expirations
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.
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.