Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 12, 8:23 PM ET

HII max pain

Spot (delayed)$263.77
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$290+9.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$48.15±18.3% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI1.22549 puts / 449 calls
Call wall$260largest call OI
Put wall$300largest put OI
IV3040.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$55Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Oct 16$270+2.4%3d
Fri, Nov 20$270+2.4%38d
Fri, Dec 18$300+13.7%66d
Fri, Mar 19$290+9.9%157d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot290150216282348414480$8M$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 — 290 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot290150190240300360420104104
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HII open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot2901501902403003604205050
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot15021628234841448047%34%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot150190240300360420+$28K−$28K
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.92-0.021950.00230.26-0.03-0.09
0.91-0.032000.00260.30-0.04-0.10
0.87-0.042100.00340.37-0.04-0.14
0.83-0.042200.00410.45-0.05-0.18
0.78-0.052300.00480.52-0.06-0.23
0.72-0.062400.00550.58-0.07-0.29
0.66-0.072500.00610.63-0.07-0.35
0.60-0.072600.00650.67-0.07-0.41
0.53-0.072700.00670.69-0.07-0.48
0.47-0.072800.00670.68-0.07-0.55
0.41-0.072900.00660.67-0.07-0.61
0.35-0.073000.00620.64-0.07-0.67
0.30-0.063100.00580.60-0.06-0.73
0.25-0.063200.00540.55-0.06-0.78
0.21-0.053300.00480.50-0.05-0.82

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 35 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1702303003704505403310
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

spot150190260340420500350350
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 2K 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: HII workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk