Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 6:59 PM ET

HUT max pain

Spot (delayed)$64.05
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$80+24.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$20.08±31.3% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.157K puts / 48K calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$65largest put OI
IV30107.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.5Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $80

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 30$78+21.8%4d
Fri, Nov 6$81+26.5%11d
Fri, Nov 13$84+31.1%18d
Fri, Nov 20$75+17.1%25d
Fri, Nov 27$80+24.9%32d
Fri, Dec 4$86+34.3%39d
Fri, Dec 18$80+24.9%53d
Fri, Jan 15$50-21.9%81d
Fri, Mar 19$85+32.7%144d
Fri, Apr 16$70+9.3%172d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot80356085110135160$271M$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 — 80 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot8035608511013516012K12K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)HUT 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

spot803560851101351605656
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot356085110135160124%89%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 102.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 80356085110135160+$502K−$502K
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
0.94-0.03350.00400.03-0.03-0.06
0.91-0.04400.00600.04-0.04-0.10
0.86-0.06450.00830.06-0.06-0.14
0.80-0.07500.01070.07-0.07-0.20
0.73-0.08550.01280.08-0.08-0.28
0.65-0.09600.01450.09-0.09-0.35
0.58-0.09650.01560.10-0.09-0.43
0.50-0.09700.01610.10-0.09-0.51
0.43-0.09750.01600.10-0.09-0.58
0.36-0.09800.01530.09-0.09-0.65
0.30-0.08850.01430.09-0.08-0.71
0.25-0.07900.01310.08-0.07-0.76
0.21-0.06950.01170.07-0.06-0.81
0.17-0.061000.01040.06-0.05-0.84

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 26 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot30667788991144K0
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

spot340658512517538K38K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 272K call contracts, 105K 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: HUT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk