Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 24, 11:48 PM ET

HROW max pain

Spot (delayed)$28.59
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$25-12.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.73±27.0% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.114K puts / 39K calls
Call wall$50largest call OI
Put wall$35largest put OI
IV3072.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$594Kper 1% move

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$30+4.9%26d
Fri, Dec 18$36+25.9%54d
Fri, Jan 15$25-12.6%82d
Fri, Mar 19$30+4.9%145d
Fri, Apr 16$35+22.4%173d
Fri, Sep 17$28-2.1%327d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot25132640536780$139M$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 — 25 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot2513253137508011K11K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HROW 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

spot251325313750803939
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot132640536780160%55%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 71.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot132531375080+$153K−$153K
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
0.81-0.02220.02600.04-0.02-0.19
0.78-0.02230.02910.04-0.02-0.22
0.74-0.02240.03210.04-0.02-0.25
0.70-0.02250.03490.05-0.02-0.29
0.66-0.02260.03720.05-0.02-0.33
0.62-0.02270.03900.05-0.02-0.37
0.58-0.02280.04030.05-0.02-0.41
0.54-0.02290.04100.05-0.02-0.45
0.50-0.02300.04120.05-0.02-0.49
0.47-0.02310.04080.05-0.02-0.53
0.43-0.02320.04010.05-0.02-0.56
0.40-0.02330.03910.05-0.02-0.60
0.37-0.02340.03780.05-0.02-0.63
0.34-0.02350.03640.05-0.02-0.66
0.31-0.02360.03490.05-0.02-0.68

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 31 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot13263340477011K0
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

spot13253239466514K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 50K call contracts, 6K 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: HROW workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk