Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 18, 12:11 AM ET

IMAX max pain

Spot (delayed)$50.82
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$50-1.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.83±13.4% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI21.4612K puts / 537 calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$45largest put OI
IV3054.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.1Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $45

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, Nov 20$50-1.6%33d
Fri, Dec 18$44-13.4%61d
Fri, Mar 19$45-11.5%152d
Fri, Jan 21$40-21.3%460d
Fri, Jan 19$40-21.3%824d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot50404652586470$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 — 50 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot50405060708K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IMAX 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

spot50405060702525
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot40465258647075%42%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 54.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 4540506070+$631K−$631K
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
0.90-0.03400.01660.03-0.03-0.10
0.80-0.04450.03180.04-0.04-0.21
0.59-0.04500.04900.06-0.04-0.41
0.35-0.04550.04810.06-0.04-0.67
0.18-0.03600.03260.04-0.03-0.84
0.10-0.02650.01950.03-0.02-0.94
0.05-0.01700.01150.02-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2032394449705K0
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

spot2031374349758K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 10K call contracts, 15K 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: IMAX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk