Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 17, 4:00 AM ET

KZIA max pain

Spot (delayed)$13.52
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$5-63.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$6.7±49.6% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.0720 puts / 277 calls
Call wall$7.5largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV30157.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$1Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · 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, Aug 21$10-26.0%4d
Fri, Sep 18$15+10.9%32d
Fri, Nov 20$5-63.0%95d
Fri, Feb 19$2.5-81.5%186d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot55913172125$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 — 5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot55101520136136
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)KZIA 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

spot5510152011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot81115182225161%109%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 128.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot5101520+$485$485
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
0.92-0.0150.01080.01-0.01-0.07
0.85-0.017.50.01950.01-0.01-0.14
0.76-0.02100.02980.02-0.02-0.22
0.65-0.0212.50.03900.03-0.02-0.32
0.54-0.02150.04380.03-0.02-0.43
0.45-0.0217.50.04410.03-0.02-0.52
0.37-0.02200.04170.03-0.02-0.59
0.27-0.01250.03500.02-0.01-0.69

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2.57.512.517.522.52K0
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

spot2.57.512.517.522.52K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 7K call contracts, 335 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: KZIA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk