Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 22, 1:47 AM ET

IRON max pain

Spot (delayed)$76.2
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$60-21.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.85±10.3% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI1.0717K puts / 16K calls
Call wall$90largest call OI
Put wall$60largest put OI
IV3043.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1.2Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $70

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$60-21.3%30d
Fri, Dec 18$75-1.6%58d
Fri, Jan 15$80+5.0%86d
Fri, Mar 19$80+5.0%149d
Thu, Jun 17$35-54.1%239d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot6025446382101120$64M$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 — 60 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot60254565851056K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IRON 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

spot60254565851051K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot25446382101120153%40%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 45.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 7025456585105+$652K−$652K
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
1.00—400.00060.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.00450.00120.01-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.01500.00250.01-0.01-0.02
0.97-0.01550.00490.01-0.02-0.03
0.94-0.02600.00950.03-0.03-0.06
0.88-0.04650.01780.04-0.04-0.12
0.77-0.05700.02990.07-0.05-0.24
0.59-0.06750.04030.09-0.06-0.42
0.39-0.06800.04000.08-0.06-0.63
0.23-0.05850.03070.07-0.05-0.79
0.14-0.04900.02070.05-0.04-0.89
0.08-0.03950.01340.03-0.03-0.95
0.05-0.021000.00870.02-0.02-0.98
0.03-0.011050.00580.02-0.02-1.00
0.02-0.011100.00390.01-0.02-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot25456075901056K0
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

spot254565851056K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 19K call contracts, 20K 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: IRON workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk