Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 21, 11:56 PM ET

IONQ max pain

Spot (delayed)$31.89
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$40+25.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.52±23.6% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.8445K puts / 54K calls
Call wall$45largest call OI
Put wall$30largest put OI
IV3077.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$264Kper 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, Oct 23$33.5+5.0%2d
Fri, Oct 30$35+9.8%9d
Fri, Nov 6$37+16.0%16d
Fri, Nov 13$36+12.9%23d
Fri, Nov 20$40+25.4%30d
Fri, Nov 27$35+9.8%37d
Fri, Dec 18$40+25.4%58d
Fri, Jan 15$35+9.8%86d
Fri, Mar 19$40+25.4%149d
Fri, Apr 16$40+25.4%177d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot4010366288114140$443M$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 — 40 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot401022.545709512010K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IONQ 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

spot401022.54570951204K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot10366288114140165%70%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 73.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot1022.5457095120+$354K−$354K
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
1.00—100.00040.000.00-0.00
0.99—12.50.00090.00-0.00-0.00
0.990.00150.00220.00-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0017.50.00480.01-0.01-0.02
0.95-0.01200.00950.01-0.01-0.05
0.91-0.0122.50.01620.02-0.01-0.09
0.84-0.02250.02450.03-0.02-0.15
0.66-0.03300.03880.05-0.03-0.34
0.46-0.03350.04160.05-0.03-0.55
0.29-0.03400.03520.04-0.03-0.71
0.19-0.02450.02650.04-0.02-0.82
0.12-0.02500.01910.03-0.02-0.89
0.08-0.01550.01370.02-0.01-0.93
0.06-0.01600.00990.01-0.01-0.96
0.04-0.01650.00730.01-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 30 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot202833.538.543.5527K0
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

spot2.52433.5416010553K53K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 378K call contracts, 321K 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: IONQ workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk