Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 2:59 AM ET

KALU max pain

Spot (delayed)$110
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$120+9.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$11.73±10.7% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.1188 puts / 826 calls
Call wall$220largest call OI
Put wall$135largest put OI
IV3047.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$53Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $100

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$120+9.1%25d
Fri, Dec 18$140+27.3%53d
Fri, Mar 19$130+18.2%144d
Thu, Jun 17$130+18.2%234d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot12055100145190235280$9M$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 — 120 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot12055105135165200260294294
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KALU 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

spot120551051351652002603737
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot5590125160195230186%44%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 48.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 10080100120140160180+$32K−$32K
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
1.000.0055—0.000.000.00
0.99-0.01800.00240.01-0.01-0.01
0.97-0.02850.00520.02-0.02-0.04
0.93-0.04900.01010.04-0.04-0.08
0.85-0.06950.01670.07-0.06-0.15
0.74-0.081000.02330.10-0.08-0.26
0.61-0.101050.02760.12-0.10-0.40
0.47-0.101100.02820.12-0.10-0.54
0.34-0.101150.02560.11-0.10-0.67
0.24-0.081200.02120.09-0.09-0.78
0.17-0.071250.01650.07-0.07-0.86
0.11-0.051300.01230.06-0.06-0.92
0.07-0.041350.00880.04-0.04-0.96
0.05-0.031400.00620.03-0.02-0.98
0.03-0.021450.00430.02-0.01-0.99

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 33 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot801151451752102702960
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

spot5590125160195260296296
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 261 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: KALU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk