Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 9, 9:02 PM ET

ESE max pain

Spot (delayed)$240.6
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 9, 9:02 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Nov 20Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$17.95
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 9, 9:02 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2026-11-20 expiration = 17.95 USD, 7.5% of 240.60 spot.
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±7.5% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI1.83
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 9, 9:02 PM ET
How22 put contracts / 12 call contracts = 1.83 for the 2026-11-20 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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22 puts / 12 calls
IV3039.9%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 9, 9:02 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 34 open contracts across 8 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Event risk before this expiration: 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 20too thin11d
Fri, Dec 18$240-0.2%39d
Fri, Mar 19$240-0.2%130d
Thu, Jun 17too thin220d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 34 open contracts across 8 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot2202502702901010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ESE 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

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot220236252268284300102%45%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 53.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.82-0.292200.01050.11-0.29-0.18
0.53-0.402400.01840.17-0.40-0.47
0.36-0.382500.01690.16-0.38-0.64
0.23-0.332600.01290.13-0.33-0.77
0.15-0.272700.00920.10-0.27-0.85
0.11-0.232800.00660.08-0.22-0.90
0.08-0.192900.00480.06-0.18-0.93
0.06-0.163000.00360.05-0.15-0.95

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

spot1652102703304104701K0
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

spot1401802403204004801K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 57 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: ESE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk