Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 19, 4:58 PM ET

HCA max pain

Spot (delayed)$455.12
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$450-1.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$40.3±8.9% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI1.896K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$480largest call OI
Put wall$440largest put OI
IV3036.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$2.6Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $320

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, Nov 20$450-1.1%32d
Fri, Dec 18$430-5.5%60d
Fri, Jan 15$400-12.1%88d
Fri, Mar 19$420-7.7%151d
Thu, Jun 17$400-12.1%241d
Fri, Sep 17$410-9.9%333d
Fri, Jan 21$400-12.1%459d
Fri, Jan 19$370-18.7%823d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot450290342394446498550$78M$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 — 450 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot4502903553954354755152K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HCA 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

spot4502903553954354755156060
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot29034239444649855085%35%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 37.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 320290355395435475515+$2.5M−$2.5M
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
0.78-0.234200.00560.40-0.24-0.22
0.76-0.254250.00600.43-0.26-0.25
0.72-0.264300.00650.45-0.27-0.28
0.69-0.284350.00690.48-0.28-0.31
0.65-0.294400.00730.50-0.29-0.35
0.61-0.304450.00760.52-0.30-0.39
0.58-0.304500.00780.53-0.31-0.43
0.54-0.314550.00790.54-0.31-0.47
0.50-0.314600.00800.54-0.31-0.51
0.46-0.314650.00800.54-0.31-0.55
0.42-0.304700.00790.53-0.30-0.59
0.38-0.294750.00770.52-0.30-0.63
0.35-0.284800.00740.50-0.29-0.66
0.31-0.274850.00710.48-0.28-0.70
0.28-0.264900.00680.46-0.26-0.73

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 45 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1502703654304905551K0
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

spot1703203954454906202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 16K call contracts, 14K 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: HCA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk