Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 21, 11:16 PM ET

DJT max pain

Spot (delayed)$6.65
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$10+50.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.73±26.1% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.98102K puts / 104K calls
Call wall$15largest call OI
Put wall$5largest put OI
IV3066.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$222Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Oct 23$7+5.2%2d
Fri, Oct 30$7+5.2%9d
Fri, Nov 6$7+5.2%16d
Fri, Nov 13$7+5.2%23d
Fri, Nov 20$9+35.3%30d
Fri, Nov 27$6.5-2.3%37d
Fri, Dec 18$9+35.3%58d
Fri, Jan 15$10+50.3%86d
Fri, Mar 19$9+35.3%149d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot10122436384105$702M$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 — 10 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot10181532508544K44K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)DJT open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot101815325085368368
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot122436384105257%61%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 65.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot1815325085+$199K−$199K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00—10.00220.000.00-0.00
0.99—20.00670.00-0.00-0.01
0.98—30.01710.00-0.00-0.02
0.95-0.0040.04520.00-0.00-0.06
0.86-0.0050.10200.01-0.00-0.14
0.70-0.0060.16360.01-0.00-0.30
0.52-0.0170.18480.01-0.01-0.49
0.37-0.0180.16810.01-0.00-0.64
0.26-0.0090.13850.01-0.00-0.75
0.19-0.00100.11010.01-0.00-0.83
0.15-0.00110.08800.01-0.00-0.87
0.12-0.00120.07200.01-0.00-0.90
0.10-0.00130.06060.01-0.00-0.92
0.09-0.00140.05240.01-0.00-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 40 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3.568.51113.5173K0
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

spot16.51116356560K60K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 303K call contracts, 193K 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: DJT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk