Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 3:53 PM ET

LITE max pain

Spot (delayed)$826.37
Max pain · Fri, Apr 16$970+17.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$316.85±38.3% by Fri, Apr 16
Put/Call OI12.256K puts / 527 calls
Call wall$1,660largest call OI
Put wall$960largest put OI
IV3081.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$3.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $390

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+1.6%4d
Fri, Nov 6$865+4.7%11d
Fri, Nov 13$880+6.5%18d
Fri, Nov 20$900+8.9%25d
Fri, Nov 27$835+1.0%32d
Fri, Dec 4$800-3.2%39d
Fri, Dec 18$850+2.9%53d
Fri, Jan 15$800-3.2%81d
Fri, Feb 19$870+5.3%116d
Fri, Mar 19$850+2.9%144d
Fri, Apr 16$970+17.4%172d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot970460700940118014201660$210M$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 — 970 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Apr 16

spot97046058071080090011201K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LITE open contracts per strike for Fri, Apr 16.

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, Apr 16

spot97046058071080090011202323
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Apr 16

spot46070094011801420166075%69%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 70.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Apr 16

spotflip 3904605807108009001120+$774K−$774K
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, Apr 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.70-0.387300.00081.95-0.40-0.30
0.69-0.397500.00092.01-0.41-0.32
0.68-0.407600.00092.04-0.41-0.33
0.67-0.407700.00092.06-0.42-0.34
0.66-0.417800.00092.08-0.42-0.35
0.64-0.418000.00092.12-0.43-0.37
0.63-0.428100.00092.14-0.43-0.38
0.62-0.428200.00092.16-0.44-0.39
0.60-0.438400.00102.19-0.44-0.41
0.59-0.438500.00102.20-0.44-0.41
0.57-0.448700.00102.22-0.45-0.43
0.56-0.448800.00102.23-0.45-0.44
0.54-0.449000.00102.25-0.45-0.46
0.53-0.459200.00102.26-0.45-0.48
0.49-0.459600.00102.26-0.45-0.52

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 41 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