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

HCA max pain

Spot (delayed)$454.54
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$400-12.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$57.15±12.6% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.603K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$310largest call OI
Put wall$450largest put OI
IV3036.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$947Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $310

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

spot400150284418552686820$190M$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 — 400 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot4001502203104004906601K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HCA 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

spot40015022031040049066033
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot150284418552686820125%30%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 32.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 310250320390460560700+$549K−$549K
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
0.88-0.083800.00260.45-0.09-0.12
0.85-0.103900.00300.52-0.10-0.15
0.81-0.114000.00350.60-0.12-0.19
0.78-0.124100.00400.67-0.13-0.23
0.73-0.134200.00440.74-0.14-0.27
0.68-0.144300.00480.79-0.15-0.32
0.63-0.154400.00520.84-0.16-0.37
0.58-0.164500.00540.87-0.16-0.43
0.52-0.164600.00560.89-0.16-0.48
0.47-0.164700.00560.89-0.16-0.54
0.41-0.154800.00550.87-0.16-0.60
0.36-0.154900.00530.84-0.15-0.65
0.31-0.145000.00510.79-0.14-0.70
0.23-0.125200.00430.68-0.12-0.79
0.16-0.105400.00350.55-0.10-0.86

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 51 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