Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 25, 12:01 AM ET

KBWB max pain

Spot (delayed)$87.56
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$88+0.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.65±8.7% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI1.4413K puts / 9K calls
Call wall$88largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV3023.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$788Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $50

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · 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$87-0.6%26d
Fri, Dec 18$92+5.1%54d
Fri, Jan 15$88+0.5%82d
Fri, Mar 19$89+1.6%145d
Thu, Jun 17$95+8.5%235d
Fri, Jan 21$86-1.8%453d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot8845597387101115$56M$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 — 88 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot8845687582891007K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KBWB open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot884568758289100143143
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot4559738710111586%16%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 504568758289100+$1.3M−$1.3M
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.77-0.02810.02870.13-0.02-0.25
0.74-0.02820.03130.13-0.02-0.27
0.71-0.02830.03390.14-0.02-0.30
0.68-0.02840.03640.15-0.02-0.34
0.64-0.02850.03880.15-0.02-0.37
0.60-0.02860.04080.16-0.02-0.41
0.56-0.02870.04240.16-0.02-0.45
0.52-0.02880.04340.17-0.02-0.50
0.48-0.02890.04380.17-0.02-0.54
0.43-0.02900.04340.16-0.02-0.58
0.39-0.02910.04240.16-0.02-0.62
0.35-0.02920.04080.15-0.02-0.66
0.32-0.02930.03880.15-0.02-0.70
0.28-0.02940.03660.14-0.02-0.73
0.25-0.02950.03410.13-0.02-0.76

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 39 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot4569778491987K0
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

spot407080901001159K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 21K call contracts, 19K 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: KBWB workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk