Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 14, 7:37 AM ET

HPE max pain

Spot (delayed)$68.85
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$50-27.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$15.43±22.4% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.5434K puts / 63K calls
Call wall$70largest call OI
Put wall$18largest put OI
IV3059.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4.2Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $55

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, Oct 16$60-12.9%2d
Fri, Oct 23$63-8.5%9d
Fri, Oct 30$67-2.7%16d
Fri, Nov 6$71+3.1%23d
Fri, Nov 13$72+4.6%30d
Fri, Nov 20$55-20.1%37d
Fri, Nov 27$67-2.7%44d
Fri, Dec 18$50-27.4%65d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot501330486583100$222M$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 — 50 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot5013223038467018K18K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HPE 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

spot50132230384670211211
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot1330486583100213%65%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 65.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 55222936435085+$1.6M−$1.6M
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
0.93-0.02470.00660.04-0.02-0.07
0.92-0.02480.00740.04-0.02-0.08
0.91-0.02490.00810.05-0.02-0.09
0.90-0.02500.00890.05-0.03-0.10
0.83-0.04550.01290.07-0.04-0.17
0.74-0.05600.01660.09-0.05-0.26
0.65-0.05650.01920.11-0.05-0.36
0.54-0.06700.02050.12-0.06-0.46
0.45-0.06750.02030.12-0.06-0.56
0.36-0.06800.01910.11-0.05-0.65
0.29-0.05850.01730.10-0.05-0.72
0.22-0.04900.01510.09-0.04-0.79
0.17-0.04950.01290.07-0.04-0.84
0.14-0.031000.01080.06-0.03-0.88

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 47 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3549576573809K0
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

spot13314456677762K62K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 349K call contracts, 283K 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: HPE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk