Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 22, 7:46 PM ET

GS max pain

Spot (delayed)$889.12
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$920+3.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$66.05±7.4% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI1.0122K puts / 22K calls
Call wall$1,000largest call OI
Put wall$880largest put OI
IV3032.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$20.2Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 23$892.5+0.4%1d
Fri, Oct 30$897.5+0.9%8d
Fri, Nov 6$890+0.1%15d
Fri, Nov 13$900+1.2%22d
Fri, Nov 20$920+3.5%29d
Fri, Nov 27$880-1.0%36d
Fri, Dec 18$860-3.3%57d
Fri, Jan 15$890+0.1%85d
Fri, Feb 19$850-4.4%120d
Fri, Mar 19$960+8.0%148d
Fri, Apr 16$960+8.0%176d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot920400600800100012001400$946M$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 — 920 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot92040080086091597010602K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GS open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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, Nov 20

spot9204008008609159701060126126
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot40060080010001200140095%29%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 32.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot7008208709259801100+$5.3M−$5.3M
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.69-0.498550.00420.89-0.51-0.31
0.67-0.518600.00430.91-0.52-0.33
0.65-0.528650.00440.93-0.53-0.35
0.63-0.538700.00460.95-0.54-0.38
0.60-0.538750.00460.97-0.55-0.40
0.58-0.548800.00470.98-0.55-0.42
0.56-0.558850.00480.99-0.56-0.45
0.53-0.558900.00491.00-0.56-0.47
0.51-0.558950.00491.00-0.56-0.50
0.48-0.559000.00491.00-0.55-0.52
0.43-0.549100.00490.99-0.54-0.57
0.41-0.539150.00480.98-0.53-0.60
0.39-0.529200.00480.96-0.52-0.62
0.36-0.519250.00470.94-0.51-0.65
0.34-0.509300.00460.92-0.50-0.67

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

spot580700835887.59259902K0
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

spot400750850925104013009K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 260K call contracts, 206K 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: GS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk