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

IRE max pain

Spot (delayed)$3.36
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$8+138.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.7±80.4% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.662K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$23largest call OI
Put wall$8largest put OI
IV30220.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$851per 1% move · flip ≈ $16

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

spot81611162126$4M$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 — 8 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot81611162126795795
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IRE open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot816111621263636
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot1611162126334%132%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 187.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spotflip 161611162126+$661−$661
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.92-0.0010.03180.00-0.00-0.06
0.82-0.0020.06180.01-0.00-0.15
0.72-0.0030.08060.01-0.00-0.24
0.64-0.0140.08920.01-0.00-0.32
0.57-0.0150.09220.01-0.01-0.38
0.52-0.0160.09250.01-0.01-0.43
0.48-0.0170.09140.01-0.01-0.47
0.44-0.0180.08960.01-0.01-0.50
0.41-0.0190.08750.01-0.00-0.54
0.39-0.01100.08530.01-0.00-0.56

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 10 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

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