Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 13, 3:15 AM ET

FICO max pain

Spot (delayed)$985.47
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$1,100+11.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$120.8±12.3% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI1.312K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$1,200largest call OI
Put wall$960largest put OI
Net GEX−$2.5Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Sep 18$1,000+1.5%5d
Fri, Oct 16$1,100+11.6%33d
Fri, Nov 20$1,020+3.5%68d
Fri, Dec 18$1,120+13.7%96d
Fri, Jan 15$1,220+23.8%124d
Fri, Mar 19$1,060+7.6%187d
Fri, Apr 16$940-4.6%215d
Thu, Jun 17$1,100+11.6%277d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot11004607881116144417722100$124M$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 — 1100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot1100460860960116013401840319319
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)FICO open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot11004608609601160134018406969
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot4607881116144417722100129%46%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 49.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot700860940108012201360+$783K$783K
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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.76-0.679000.00210.96-0.68-0.24
0.74-0.709100.00221.00-0.71-0.27
0.71-0.739200.00231.04-0.73-0.29
0.69-0.759300.00241.08-0.76-0.31
0.66-0.779400.00251.12-0.78-0.34
0.64-0.799500.00261.15-0.80-0.36
0.61-0.819600.00261.17-0.81-0.39
0.56-0.839800.00271.21-0.84-0.45
0.50-0.8310000.00271.22-0.84-0.50
0.45-0.8310200.00271.21-0.84-0.55
0.40-0.8110400.00261.18-0.82-0.61
0.35-0.7810600.00251.14-0.80-0.65
0.31-0.7510800.00241.08-0.77-0.70
0.27-0.7111000.00221.01-0.73-0.74
0.24-0.6611200.00200.94-0.68-0.77

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot46086010601230146020405640
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

spot460780940114013201990658658
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 11K call contracts, 9K 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: FICO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk