Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 14, 3:44 AM ET

LEN max pain

Spot (delayed)$75.17
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$90+19.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$10.45±13.9% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.107K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$95largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3041.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$488Kper 1% move

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, Oct 16$79+5.1%2d
Fri, Oct 23$78+3.8%9d
Fri, Oct 30$78+3.8%16d
Fri, Nov 6$77+2.4%23d
Fri, Nov 13$77+2.4%30d
Fri, Nov 20$85+13.1%37d
Fri, Nov 27$76+1.1%44d
Fri, Dec 18$90+19.7%65d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot904574103132161190$53M$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, Dec 18

spot904570951201451803K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LEN open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 18.

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, Dec 18

spot904570951201451809494
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot457410313216119096%39%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 41.1% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot457095120145180+$324K−$324K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99—450.00140.01-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.00500.00320.02-0.01-0.02
0.95-0.01550.00660.03-0.01-0.05
0.90-0.02600.01210.06-0.02-0.10
0.81-0.03650.01900.09-0.03-0.19
0.69-0.04700.02550.11-0.04-0.31
0.55-0.04750.02890.13-0.04-0.45
0.41-0.04800.02830.12-0.04-0.59
0.29-0.04850.02470.11-0.04-0.72
0.20-0.03900.01990.09-0.03-0.81
0.14-0.02950.01530.07-0.02-0.88
0.10-0.021000.01140.06-0.02-0.93
0.07-0.011050.00840.04-0.01-0.96
0.05-0.011100.00620.03-0.01-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 14 strikes around the money — all 27 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot45717885921054K0
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

spot4071829312017510K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 65K call contracts, 66K 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: LEN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk