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

DELL max pain

Spot (delayed)$571.09
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$300-47.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$149.23±26.1% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.9055K puts / 29K calls
Call wall$160largest call OI
Put wall$100largest put OI
IV3058.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $220

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · 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.

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

spot30045196347498649800$1.2B$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 — 300 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot300451201802804105306K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DELL open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 18.

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, Dec 18

spot30045120180280410530186186
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot45196347498649800180%66%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 66.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 220220300380440520660+$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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.78-0.314700.00160.84-0.31-0.22
0.76-0.324800.00160.88-0.33-0.24
0.72-0.355000.00180.95-0.35-0.28
0.68-0.375200.00191.02-0.38-0.32
0.66-0.385300.00191.04-0.39-0.34
0.64-0.395400.00201.06-0.39-0.36
0.62-0.405500.00201.08-0.40-0.39
0.60-0.405600.00201.10-0.41-0.41
0.52-0.416000.00211.13-0.42-0.49
0.40-0.406600.00201.10-0.41-0.60
0.34-0.387000.00191.04-0.39-0.67
0.28-0.357400.00180.96-0.37-0.73
0.25-0.337700.00160.89-0.34-0.77
0.21-0.318000.00150.82-0.32-0.80

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 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