Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 2, 6:25 PM ET

EFV max pain

Spot (delayed)$79.49
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 2, 6:25 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Dec 18Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.02
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 2, 6:25 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2026-12-18 expiration = 4.02 USD, 5.1% of 79.49 spot.
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±5.1% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.08
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 2, 6:25 PM ET
How3 put contracts / 36 call contracts = 0.08 for the 2026-12-18 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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3 puts / 36 calls
IV3015.1%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 2, 6:25 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 39 open contracts across 13 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Nov 20too thin17d
Fri, Dec 18too thin45d
Fri, Mar 19$72-9.4%136d
Thu, Jun 17too thin226d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 39 open contracts across 13 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot607578828799
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)EFV 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

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot60657176828749%12%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 17.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.96-0.01600.00640.03-0.01-0.05
0.89-0.01700.02110.05-0.02-0.12
0.82-0.02740.03930.07-0.02-0.19
0.80-0.02750.04680.08-0.02-0.23
0.76-0.02760.05610.09-0.02-0.27
0.71-0.02770.06740.10-0.02-0.32
0.65-0.02780.08030.10-0.02-0.38
0.48-0.02800.09900.11-0.02-0.56
0.38-0.02810.09510.11-0.02-0.65
0.30-0.02820.08360.10-0.01-0.73
0.24-0.01830.07020.09-0.01-0.78
0.16-0.01850.04820.07-0.01-0.85
0.12-0.01870.03410.06-0.01-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot55757881858915K0
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

spot507077849111015K15K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 15K call contracts, 12 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.

Max pain, walls and gamma print only when an expiration holds at least 100 open contracts across 5 strikes, and max pain also needs to stay within 5% of spot when its single heaviest strike is removed. Below that the expiration reads as thin rather than printing a level one trade could move.

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: EFV workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk