Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 18, 12:42 AM ET

LFUS max pain

Spot (delayed)$381.59
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$440+15.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$89.55±23.5% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI1.33421 puts / 317 calls
Call wall$620largest call OI
Put wall$400largest put OI
IV3049.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$54Kper 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, Nov 20$430+12.7%33d
Fri, Dec 18$420+10.1%61d
Fri, Mar 19$440+15.3%152d
Thu, Jun 17$360-5.7%242d
Fri, Sep 17$370-3.0%334d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot440200296392488584680$5M$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 — 440 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot440200270350420490560153153
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LFUS open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot4402002703504204905601010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot20029639248858468064%45%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 45.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot200270360430500580+$34K−$34K
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.83-0.103000.00210.63-0.10-0.17
0.80-0.103100.00230.69-0.11-0.20
0.75-0.123300.00270.79-0.12-0.26
0.72-0.133400.00290.83-0.13-0.29
0.69-0.133500.00310.88-0.14-0.32
0.65-0.143600.00320.91-0.14-0.35
0.62-0.143700.00330.94-0.14-0.39
0.58-0.143800.00340.96-0.15-0.42
0.55-0.143900.00350.98-0.15-0.46
0.52-0.144000.00350.98-0.15-0.49
0.48-0.144100.00350.98-0.15-0.53
0.45-0.144200.00350.98-0.15-0.56
0.42-0.144300.00350.96-0.15-0.59
0.39-0.144400.00340.95-0.14-0.63
0.36-0.144500.00330.92-0.14-0.66

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 42 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot2003203904605306302430
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

spot195280370460550640257257
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1K call contracts, 2K 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: LFUS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk