Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 24, 2:40 AM ET

EMXC max pain

Spot (delayed)$91.71
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$95+3.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.85±6.4% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.5148 puts / 94 calls
Call wall$102largest call OI
Put wall$89largest put OI
IV3029.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $103

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Nov 20$95+3.6%26d
Fri, Dec 18$94+2.5%54d
Fri, Mar 19$88-4.0%145d
Thu, Jun 17$70-23.7%235d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot9588929599102106$1M$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, Nov 20

spot958894971001031062929
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)EMXC open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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, Nov 20

spot958894971001031061515
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot8892959910210637%26%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 103889497100103106+$6K−$6K
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.69-0.05880.04220.09-0.05-0.31
0.65-0.05890.04580.09-0.05-0.35
0.60-0.05900.04890.10-0.05-0.39
0.40-0.05940.05220.10-0.05-0.60
0.35-0.05950.05020.09-0.05-0.65
0.30-0.04960.04720.09-0.05-0.70
0.26-0.04970.04360.08-0.04-0.74
0.22-0.04980.03970.08-0.04-0.78
0.19-0.04990.03570.07-0.04-0.81
0.17-0.031000.03200.06-0.03-0.84

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot608594991041202210
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

spot45788694102120308308
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 370 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: EMXC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk