Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 22, 4:21 AM ET

DAL max pain

Spot (delayed)$82.62
Max pain · Fri, Oct 9$79-4.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.23±8.7% by Fri, Oct 9
Put/Call OI0.742K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$82largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3044.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$218Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $60
Earnings · expectedThu, Oct 8usually before the open

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 25$80-3.2%3d
Fri, Oct 2$80-3.2%10d
Fri, Oct 9$79-4.4%17d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Oct 8)
Fri, Oct 16$80-3.2%24d
Fri, Oct 23$79-4.4%31d
Fri, Oct 30$78-5.6%38d
Fri, Nov 20$82.5-0.1%59d
Fri, Dec 18$75-9.2%87d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot795061728394105$5M$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 — 79 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spot79506874808692364364
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DAL open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 9.

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 9

spot79506874808692875875
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spot606978879610592%38%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 49.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 9

spotflip 60506874808692+$106K$106K
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 9

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.80-0.07760.03120.05-0.07-0.20
0.76-0.08770.03420.06-0.08-0.24
0.72-0.08780.03690.06-0.09-0.28
0.68-0.09790.03940.07-0.09-0.32
0.64-0.09800.04130.07-0.09-0.36
0.60-0.10810.04280.07-0.10-0.40
0.56-0.10820.04380.07-0.10-0.45
0.51-0.10830.04420.07-0.10-0.49
0.47-0.10840.04400.07-0.10-0.54
0.42-0.10850.04340.07-0.10-0.58
0.38-0.10860.04240.07-0.10-0.62
0.34-0.09870.04090.07-0.09-0.66
0.30-0.09880.03910.06-0.09-0.70
0.27-0.08890.03700.06-0.08-0.74
0.23-0.07900.03470.06-0.07-0.77

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 36 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot507078869410210K0
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

spot2052.57282.59310558K58K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 304K call contracts, 163K 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: DAL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk