Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 13, 1:35 AM ET

FRT max pain

Spot (delayed)$106.42
Max pain · Fri, May 21$100-6.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13.3±12.5% by Fri, May 21
Put/Call OI34.281K puts / 39 calls
Call wall$110largest call OI
Put wall$100largest put OI
IV3019.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$271Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · 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, Oct 16$105-1.3%3d
Fri, Nov 20$110+3.4%38d
Fri, Feb 19$110+3.4%129d
Fri, May 21$100-6.0%220d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot100657993107121135$4M$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 — 100 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21

spot1006585951051151351K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)FRT open contracts per strike for Fri, May 21.

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, May 21

spot1006585951051151351010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21

spot65799310712113550%19%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 20.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, May 21

spot658595105115135+$241K−$241K
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, May 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99—650.00150.03-0.00-0.03
0.94-0.00800.00590.10-0.01-0.08
0.91-0.00850.00850.14-0.01-0.11
0.86-0.01900.01200.18-0.01-0.16
0.80-0.01950.01620.23-0.01-0.22
0.71-0.011000.02080.28-0.01-0.32
0.59-0.011050.02450.31-0.01-0.43
0.47-0.011100.02570.32-0.01-0.56
0.35-0.011150.02390.30-0.01-0.67
0.26-0.011200.02040.27-0.01-0.77
0.10-0.011350.01020.15-0.00-0.95

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

spot901051151251351452K0
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

spot55801051301551802K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5K call contracts, 3K 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: FRT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk