Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 10:09 AM ET

LITE max pain

Spot (delayed)$765
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$850+11.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$173.95±22.7% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.4619K puts / 13K calls
Call wall$1,300largest call OI
Put wall$600largest put OI
IV3079.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$6.3Mper 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 30$840+9.8%4d
Fri, Nov 6$865+13.1%11d
Fri, Nov 13$880+15.0%18d
Fri, Nov 20$900+17.6%25d
Fri, Nov 27$835+9.2%32d
Fri, Dec 4$800+4.6%39d
Fri, Dec 18$850+11.1%53d
Fri, Jan 15$800+4.6%81d
Fri, Feb 19$870+13.7%116d
Fri, Mar 19$850+11.1%144d
Fri, Apr 16$970+26.8%172d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot850340604868113213961660$659M$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 — 850 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot85034058076086099013004K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LITE 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

spot8503405807608609901300340340
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot340604868113213961660100%72%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 73.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot3405807608609901300+$2.8M−$2.8M
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
0.77-0.626400.00130.91-0.62-0.23
0.74-0.666600.00140.97-0.66-0.27
0.71-0.696800.00151.03-0.70-0.30
0.67-0.727000.00161.08-0.73-0.33
0.64-0.757200.00171.12-0.76-0.37
0.62-0.767300.00171.13-0.77-0.39
0.58-0.777500.00181.16-0.78-0.42
0.57-0.787600.00181.17-0.79-0.44
0.55-0.787700.00181.18-0.79-0.46
0.53-0.797800.00181.18-0.80-0.48
0.51-0.797900.00181.19-0.80-0.49
0.50-0.798000.00181.19-0.80-0.51
0.48-0.788100.00181.18-0.80-0.53
0.46-0.788200.00181.18-0.79-0.55
0.45-0.788300.00181.17-0.79-0.56

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot52074582589598010952K0
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

spot2545065079094012609K9K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 112K call contracts, 159K 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: LITE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk