Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 30, 12:47 AM ET

IRE max pain

Spot (delayed)$3.36
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$9+167.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.95±58.0% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.535K puts / 10K calls
Call wall$13largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV30220.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$3Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $5

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 levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Nov 20$6+78.6%21d
Fri, Dec 18$9+167.9%49d
Fri, Mar 19$8+138.1%140d
Thu, Jun 17$3-10.7%230d
Fri, Jan 21$5+48.8%448d
Fri, Jan 19$3-10.7%812d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot911325364860$41M$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 — 9 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot9111213141542K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IRE 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

spot9111213141547575
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot11325364860428%147%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 226.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 511019283850+$966−$966
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
0.96-0.0010.03300.00-0.00-0.04
0.84-0.0120.09440.00-0.01-0.15
0.68-0.0130.14020.00-0.01-0.30
0.55-0.0140.15110.01-0.01-0.43
0.45-0.0150.14560.01-0.01-0.53
0.37-0.0160.13510.01-0.01-0.61
0.32-0.0170.12390.00-0.01-0.66
0.27-0.0180.11330.00-0.01-0.71
0.24-0.0190.10380.00-0.01-0.74
0.21-0.01100.09530.00-0.00-0.77

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 strikes around the money — all 57 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot111213141543K0
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

spot111213141513K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 25K call contracts, 16K 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: IRE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk