Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 2, 8:18 PM ET

GNRC max pain

Spot (delayed)$202.04
Max pain · Fri, Dec 11Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$29.35±14.5% by Fri, Dec 11
Put/Call OI1.503 puts / 2 calls
IV3055.5%30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 5 open contracts across 5 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 6$195-3.5%4d
Fri, Nov 13$200-1.0%11d
Fri, Nov 20$200-1.0%18d
Fri, Nov 27$200-1.0%25d
Fri, Dec 4$200-1.0%32d
Fri, Dec 11too thin39d
Fri, Dec 18$190-6.0%46d
Fri, Jan 15$185-8.4%74d
Fri, Feb 19$210+3.9%109d
Fri, May 21$200-1.0%200d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

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

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 11

spot15518020521023011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GNRC open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 11.

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 11

spot18023024525511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 11

spot15517018520021523062%53%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 55.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Dec 11

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.91-0.081550.00360.10-0.09-0.09
0.76-0.151800.00800.20-0.15-0.24
0.51-0.182050.01090.26-0.19-0.49
0.46-0.182100.01090.26-0.18-0.54
0.27-0.152300.00910.22-0.15-0.73

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

spot100160195222.52753807560
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

spot55120172.52052453302K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 28K call contracts, 27K 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: GNRC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk