Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 13, 4:08 AM ET

LIN max pain

Spot (delayed)$489
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$480-1.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$38.1±7.8% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.725K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$540largest call OI
Put wall$455largest put OI
IV3023.5%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$1.8Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $300

Event risk before this expiration: CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · 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$480-1.8%3d
Fri, Nov 20$500+2.2%38d
Fri, Dec 18$480-1.8%66d
Fri, Jan 15$510+4.3%94d
Fri, Mar 19$480-1.8%157d
Fri, Apr 16$500+2.2%185d
Thu, Jun 17$505+3.3%247d
Fri, Sep 17$475-2.9%339d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot480300366432498564630$73M$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 — 480 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot4803004004454905355801K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LIN 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

spot4803004004454905355809292
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot30036643249856463064%22%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 22.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spotflip 300300400445490535580+$1.6M−$1.6M
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
0.77-0.114550.00580.63-0.12-0.23
0.74-0.124600.00630.67-0.13-0.26
0.71-0.134650.00680.71-0.13-0.29
0.68-0.134700.00730.74-0.13-0.33
0.64-0.144750.00770.78-0.14-0.37
0.60-0.144800.00800.80-0.14-0.41
0.56-0.144850.00830.82-0.14-0.45
0.52-0.144900.00850.83-0.14-0.49
0.48-0.144950.00860.83-0.14-0.53
0.44-0.145000.00860.82-0.14-0.57
0.39-0.135050.00840.80-0.13-0.62
0.35-0.135100.00820.78-0.12-0.66
0.31-0.125150.00780.74-0.12-0.70
0.28-0.115200.00740.70-0.11-0.74
0.24-0.105250.00700.66-0.10-0.77

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 52 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3004004505005506153K0
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

spot2803904454955456004K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 25K call contracts, 35K 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: LIN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk