Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 27, 11:21 PM ET

ECHO max pain

Spot (delayed)$90
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$95+5.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13.4±14.9% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.7475K puts / 101K calls
Call wall$125largest call OI
Put wall$85largest put OI
IV3052.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$4.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $55

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 30$90+0.0%3d
Fri, Nov 6$93+3.3%10d
Fri, Nov 13$93+3.3%17d
Fri, Nov 20$90+0.0%24d
Fri, Nov 27$95+5.6%31d
Fri, Dec 4$87-3.3%38d
Fri, Dec 18$95+5.6%52d
Fri, Jan 15$95+5.6%80d
Fri, Feb 19$90+0.0%115d
Fri, Mar 19$100+11.1%143d
Fri, Apr 16$90+0.0%171d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot9584685123162200$689M$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 — 95 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot95830509013017035K35K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ECHO 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

spot9583050901301702020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot205692128164200189%47%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 49.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 55254575110145180+$5.7M−$5.7M
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
0.98-0.00550.00180.01-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.01600.00310.02-0.01-0.03
0.95-0.01650.00520.04-0.02-0.05
0.92-0.02700.00830.05-0.03-0.09
0.86-0.04750.01250.08-0.04-0.14
0.78-0.05800.01710.10-0.05-0.22
0.68-0.06850.02100.12-0.06-0.33
0.56-0.06900.02300.14-0.07-0.44
0.45-0.07950.02300.14-0.07-0.56
0.35-0.061000.02120.13-0.06-0.66
0.27-0.061050.01840.11-0.06-0.74
0.20-0.051100.01550.10-0.05-0.81
0.15-0.041150.01260.08-0.04-0.86
0.12-0.041200.01020.07-0.03-0.91
0.09-0.031250.00810.05-0.03-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 47 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot608390971041151K0
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

spot22659312516019544K44K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 308K call contracts, 153K 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: ECHO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk