Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 15, 8:16 PM ET

HALO max pain

Spot (delayed)$121.51
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$75-38.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$15.45±12.7% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.432K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$115largest call OI
Put wall$100largest put OI
IV3041.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$423Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $60

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 16$110-9.5%1d
Fri, Nov 20$110-9.5%36d
Fri, Dec 18$75-38.3%64d
Fri, Mar 19$90-25.9%155d
Fri, May 21$95-21.8%218d
Fri, Aug 20$60-50.6%309d
Fri, Dec 17$100-17.7%428d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot75355881104127150$28M$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 — 75 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot7535557595115135664664
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HALO 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

spot75355575951151358686
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot355881104127150151%37%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 38.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 6035557595115135+$171K−$171K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.01850.00340.05-0.02-0.04
0.93-0.01900.00470.06-0.03-0.06
0.91-0.02950.00660.08-0.03-0.09
0.87-0.031000.00890.11-0.04-0.13
0.82-0.041050.01170.13-0.04-0.18
0.75-0.051100.01480.16-0.05-0.25
0.67-0.051150.01760.18-0.06-0.33
0.58-0.061200.01960.20-0.06-0.43
0.48-0.061250.02030.20-0.06-0.53
0.38-0.061300.01950.19-0.06-0.63
0.29-0.051350.01770.18-0.05-0.71
0.22-0.041400.01520.15-0.04-0.79
0.17-0.041450.01260.13-0.03-0.85
0.12-0.031500.01010.10-0.02-0.90

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 24 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot355575951151351K0
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

spot3560851101351602K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 13K 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: HALO workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk