Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 23, 8:15 PM ET

GS max pain

Spot (delayed)$875.68
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$890+1.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$105.08±12.0% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI1.1446K puts / 41K calls
Call wall$1,100largest call OI
Put wall$700largest put OI
IV3032.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$8.3Mper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: 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 23$890+1.6%today
Fri, Oct 30$895+2.2%7d
Fri, Nov 6$887.5+1.3%14d
Fri, Nov 13$885+1.1%21d
Fri, Nov 20$920+5.1%28d
Fri, Nov 27$880+0.5%35d
Fri, Dec 18$860-1.8%56d
Fri, Jan 15$890+1.6%84d
Fri, Feb 19$860-1.8%119d
Fri, Mar 19$960+9.6%147d
Fri, Apr 16$960+9.6%175d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot890340592844109613481600$2.2B$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 — 890 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot8903406007208109109802K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)GS open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot8903406007208109109808585
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot34059284410961348160077%24%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 31.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot500640750830920980+$2.0M−$2.0M
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.73-0.278100.00241.39-0.27-0.28
0.70-0.288200.00261.45-0.28-0.30
0.68-0.288300.00271.50-0.29-0.33
0.65-0.298400.00281.55-0.30-0.36
0.62-0.308500.00291.59-0.31-0.39
0.59-0.308600.00301.63-0.31-0.42
0.56-0.308700.00301.65-0.32-0.45
0.53-0.318800.00311.66-0.32-0.48
0.50-0.308900.00311.67-0.32-0.51
0.47-0.309000.00311.66-0.31-0.54
0.44-0.309100.00311.65-0.31-0.57
0.41-0.299200.00311.63-0.30-0.60
0.40-0.299250.00301.61-0.30-0.62
0.38-0.299300.00301.59-0.30-0.64
0.35-0.289400.00291.56-0.29-0.67

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

spot5807008358859209852K0
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

spot400750855925104013009K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 262K call contracts, 208K 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