Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 2, 5:25 PM ET

FLO max pain

Spot (delayed)$6.65
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.22±18.4% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.0425 puts / 597 calls
IV3033.4%30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 622 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 20too thin18d
Fri, Dec 18too thin46d
Fri, Jan 15one strike decides74d
Fri, Apr 16$5-24.8%165d
Fri, Jan 21$5-24.8%445d
Fri, Jan 19one strike decides809d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 622 open contracts across 4 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot2.557.510420420
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)FLO 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

Greeks by strike · Fri, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.002.50.00480.00-0.00-0.02
0.95-0.0050.11820.00-0.00-0.11
0.18-0.007.50.28610.01-0.00-0.81
0.05-0.00100.06660.00-0.00-0.93

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

spot2.557.51012.5155K0
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

spot2.557.51012.51511K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 28K call contracts, 4K 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: FLO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk