Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 2, 7:42 PM ET

ESI max pain

Spot (delayed)$34.14
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 2, 7:42 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Jan 19Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$18.2
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 2, 7:42 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2029-01-19 expiration = 18.20 USD, 53.3% of 34.14 spot.
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±53.3% by Fri, Jan 19
Put/Call OI0.06
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 2, 7:42 PM ET
How1 put contracts / 16 call contracts = 0.06 for the 2029-01-19 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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1 puts / 16 calls
IV3046.1%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 2, 7:42 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 17 open contracts across 4 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 20$35+2.5%17d
Fri, Dec 18$35+2.5%45d
Fri, Feb 19one strike decides108d
Fri, May 21too thin199d
Fri, Jan 21too thin444d
Fri, Jan 19too thin808d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 17 open contracts across 4 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 19

spot202340421414
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ESI open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 19.

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 19

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 19

spot20242933384255%43%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 46.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Jan 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.89-0.00200.00760.10-0.00-0.12
0.86-0.00230.00950.12-0.00-0.16
0.60-0.00400.01730.19-0.01-0.45
0.57-0.01420.01770.20-0.01-0.49

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

spot12.5253541476515K0
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

spot12.5233037445515K15K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 45K call contracts, 20K 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: ESI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk