Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 21, 10:02 AM ET

HD max pain

Spot (delayed)$301.55
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$340+12.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$32.9±10.9% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.9812K puts / 13K calls
Call wall$350largest call OI
Put wall$310largest put OI
IV3025.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$4.1Mper 1% move
Earnings · expectedTue, Nov 17usually before the open

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · 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, Sep 25$307.5+2.0%4d
Fri, Oct 2$310+2.8%11d
Fri, Oct 9$315+4.5%18d
Fri, Oct 16$320+6.1%25d
Fri, Oct 23$310+2.8%32d
Fri, Oct 30$315+4.5%39d
Fri, Nov 20$325+7.8%60d← 1st expiry after earnings (Tue, Nov 17)
Fri, Dec 18$340+12.8%88d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot340165260355450545640$260M$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 — 340 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot3401652102903704505602K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HD 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

spot340165210290370450560303303
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot16526035545054564063%25%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 27.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot165210290370450560+$1.4M$1.4M
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
0.97-0.022300.00140.10-0.02-0.04
0.95-0.032400.00230.15-0.03-0.06
0.92-0.042500.00340.22-0.04-0.09
0.88-0.052600.00490.30-0.05-0.14
0.82-0.062700.00650.40-0.07-0.20
0.74-0.082800.00800.48-0.08-0.28
0.65-0.092900.00920.55-0.09-0.37
0.56-0.093000.00990.58-0.09-0.47
0.46-0.093100.01000.59-0.09-0.56
0.36-0.083200.00950.56-0.08-0.65
0.28-0.073300.00850.50-0.07-0.74
0.21-0.063400.00720.43-0.06-0.81
0.15-0.053500.00590.35-0.06-0.87
0.11-0.043600.00460.28-0.05-0.92
0.08-0.033700.00360.22-0.05-0.96

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

spot220295317.53453904359210
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

spot17026030535541050011K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 112K call contracts, 90K 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: HD workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk