Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 19, 5:57 PM ET

HCA max pain

Spot (delayed)$454.54
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$430-5.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$50.35±11.1% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.693K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$465largest call OI
Put wall$380largest put OI
IV3036.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$2.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $450

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, Nov 20$450-1.0%32d
Fri, Dec 18$430-5.4%60d
Fri, Jan 15$400-12.0%88d
Fri, Mar 19$420-7.6%151d
Thu, Jun 17$400-12.0%241d
Fri, Sep 17$410-9.8%333d
Fri, Jan 21$400-12.0%459d
Fri, Jan 19$370-18.6%823d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot430170280390500610720$87M$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 — 430 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot430170300395450500620998998
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HCA 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

spot4301703003954505006204141
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot170280390500610720136%32%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 34.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 450260340415455495560+$930K−$930K
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
0.75-0.174200.00490.59-0.17-0.26
0.72-0.184250.00520.62-0.18-0.28
0.69-0.184300.00550.65-0.19-0.31
0.66-0.194350.00570.67-0.19-0.34
0.64-0.204400.00590.69-0.20-0.37
0.60-0.204450.00610.71-0.20-0.40
0.57-0.204500.00620.72-0.20-0.43
0.54-0.204550.00630.73-0.21-0.46
0.51-0.204600.00640.73-0.21-0.49
0.48-0.204650.00640.73-0.20-0.53
0.45-0.204700.00640.73-0.20-0.56
0.42-0.204750.00630.72-0.20-0.59
0.39-0.194800.00620.70-0.20-0.62
0.36-0.194850.00610.69-0.19-0.65
0.33-0.184900.00590.67-0.18-0.68

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 56 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