Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 20, 11:30 PM ET

DELL max pain

Spot (delayed)$571.09
Max pain · Fri, Oct 2$545-4.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$50.53±8.8% by Fri, Oct 2
Put/Call OI1.6416K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$570largest call OI
Put wall$250largest put OI
IV3058.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $580

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$570-0.2%5d
Fri, Oct 2$545-4.6%12d
Fri, Oct 9$535-6.3%19d
Fri, Oct 16$500-12.4%26d
Fri, Oct 23$550-3.7%33d
Fri, Oct 30$565-1.1%40d
Fri, Nov 20$460-19.5%61d
Fri, Dec 18$300-47.5%89d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot545245350455560665770$251M$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 — 545 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spot5452453504505105656401K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DELL open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 2.

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 2

spot5452453504505105656403K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spot245350455560665770187%55%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 56.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 2

spotflip 580360450495540580660+$1.3M$1.3M
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 2

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.76-0.715300.00490.35-0.72-0.24
0.73-0.765350.00520.37-0.76-0.27
0.70-0.795400.00540.39-0.80-0.30
0.68-0.825450.00570.40-0.83-0.33
0.65-0.855500.00590.41-0.86-0.36
0.58-0.895600.00620.43-0.90-0.42
0.55-0.905650.00620.44-0.91-0.45
0.52-0.915700.00630.44-0.92-0.48
0.49-0.915750.00630.45-0.92-0.51
0.47-0.91577.50.00630.44-0.92-0.53
0.46-0.915800.00630.44-0.91-0.54
0.43-0.905850.00620.44-0.90-0.57
0.40-0.885900.00610.43-0.89-0.60
0.34-0.846000.00580.41-0.84-0.66
0.24-0.716200.00490.35-0.72-0.76

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot220345435505567.56302K0
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

spot6013522036050064017K17K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 254K call contracts, 394K 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: DELL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk