Max pain is not shown: without its single heaviest strike it moves 7.6% of spot, more than the 5% we allow, so one strike decides it. Walls and gamma still print.
Event risk before this expiration: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 is not shown: without its single heaviest strike it moves 7.6% of spot, more than the 5% we allow, so one strike decides it. Walls and gamma still print.
Open interest by strike · Fri, May 21
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IQV open contracts per strike for Fri, May 21.
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, May 21
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).
Implied volatility by strike · Fri, May 21
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 37.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.
Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, May 21
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, May 21
Call Δ
Call Θ
Strike
Γ
Vega
Put Θ
Put Δ
0.91
-0.02
185
0.0020
0.31
-0.03
-0.09
0.90
-0.03
190
0.0022
0.34
-0.04
-0.10
0.89
-0.03
195
0.0024
0.38
-0.04
-0.12
0.84
-0.04
210
0.0032
0.48
-0.05
-0.17
0.75
-0.05
230
0.0042
0.61
-0.06
-0.25
0.70
-0.06
240
0.0046
0.67
-0.07
-0.30
0.66
-0.06
250
0.0049
0.71
-0.07
-0.36
0.60
-0.07
260
0.0052
0.75
-0.07
-0.41
0.55
-0.07
270
0.0054
0.77
-0.07
-0.47
0.50
-0.07
280
0.0054
0.77
-0.07
-0.52
0.45
-0.07
290
0.0054
0.77
-0.07
-0.58
0.40
-0.07
300
0.0053
0.75
-0.07
-0.63
0.35
-0.07
310
0.0051
0.72
-0.07
-0.68
0.31
-0.06
320
0.0049
0.69
-0.07
-0.73
0.27
-0.06
330
0.0046
0.65
-0.06
-0.78
Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 29 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.
Stacked — layer the expirations
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.
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.
Max pain, walls and gamma print only when an expiration holds at least 100 open contracts across 5 strikes, and max pain also needs to stay within 5% of spot when its single heaviest strike is removed. Below that the expiration reads as thin rather than printing a level one trade could move.
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.