Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 12:24 AM ET

IXUS max pain

Spot (delayed)$92.81
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$90-3.0% vs spot
Put/Call OI0.7970 puts / 89 calls
Call wall$101largest call OI
Put wall$78largest put OI
IV3017.4%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$19Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $90

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$90-3.0%26d
Fri, Dec 18$98+5.6%54d
Fri, Feb 19$88-5.2%117d
Fri, May 21$87-6.3%208d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot907883879296101$1M$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 — 90 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot9078879095981013434
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)IXUS 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

spot90788790959810111
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot788387929610146%17%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 17.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 907887909598101+$14K−$14K
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
0.93-0.03780.01240.04-0.03-0.07
0.91-0.03800.01560.04-0.03-0.09
0.90-0.03810.01760.04-0.03-0.10
0.80-0.03870.04060.07-0.03-0.19
0.77-0.03880.04770.08-0.03-0.23
0.73-0.03890.05610.08-0.03-0.26
0.69-0.03900.06600.09-0.03-0.31
0.55-0.03920.08570.10-0.03-0.45
0.37-0.03940.08500.10-0.03-0.63
0.30-0.03950.07540.09-0.03-0.70
0.24-0.03960.06440.08-0.03-0.76
0.20-0.03970.05440.07-0.03-0.80
0.17-0.03980.04600.07-0.03-0.83
0.15-0.02990.03910.06-0.02-0.85
0.13-0.021000.03360.06-0.02-0.87

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 16 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot78889497100106340
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

spot78838893981034343
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 203 call contracts, 83 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: IXUS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk