Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 16, 8:16 PM ET

HUM max pain

Spot (delayed)$413.66
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$400-3.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$50.95±12.3% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI1.2510K puts / 8K calls
Call wall$420largest call OI
Put wall$390largest put OI
IV3050.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$99Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 23$410-0.9%7d
Fri, Oct 30$410-0.9%14d
Fri, Nov 6$425+2.7%21d
Fri, Nov 13$420+1.5%28d
Fri, Nov 20$400-3.3%35d
Fri, Nov 27$460+11.2%42d
Fri, Dec 18$310-25.1%63d
Fri, Jan 15$240-42.0%91d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot400135220305390475560$214M$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, Nov 20

spot4001352052603404205001K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HUM open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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, Nov 20

spot400135205260340420500511511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot135220305390475560190%48%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 50.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot135205260340420500+$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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.91-0.153400.00260.21-0.15-0.09
0.88-0.193500.00320.27-0.19-0.13
0.84-0.223600.00390.32-0.23-0.17
0.79-0.263700.00450.37-0.26-0.21
0.74-0.293800.00520.42-0.30-0.26
0.68-0.323900.00570.46-0.33-0.32
0.62-0.344000.00610.49-0.35-0.38
0.56-0.354100.00630.51-0.36-0.45
0.49-0.364200.00640.51-0.36-0.51
0.43-0.354300.00620.50-0.36-0.57
0.38-0.344400.00600.48-0.35-0.63
0.32-0.324500.00570.46-0.33-0.68
0.27-0.304600.00520.43-0.30-0.73
0.23-0.274700.00480.39-0.28-0.78
0.19-0.244800.00430.35-0.25-0.82

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 44 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot220360392.5420447.55101K0
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

spot901702353104104905K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 58K call contracts, 64K 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: HUM workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk