Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 28, 4:05 AM ET

LW max pain

Spot (delayed)$53.78
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$47.5-11.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$4.08±7.6% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI9.2522K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$35largest put OI
IV3035.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$191Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $55

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Nov 20$47.5-11.7%23d
Fri, Dec 18$55+2.3%51d
Fri, Jan 15$47.5-11.7%79d
Fri, Apr 16$55+2.3%170d
Fri, Dec 17$55+2.3%415d
Fri, Jan 21$40-25.6%450d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot47.5303744515865$13M$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 — 47.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot47.53037.54552.56018K18K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LW open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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, Nov 20

spot47.53037.54552.5603131
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot33394652596599%33%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 34.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 5532.54047.55565+$161K−$161K
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.000.0037.50.00140.00-0.01-0.01
0.99-0.00400.00340.00-0.01-0.02
0.99-0.0142.50.00720.00-0.01-0.04
0.97-0.01450.01600.01-0.02-0.06
0.92-0.0247.50.03460.02-0.02-0.12
0.81-0.03500.06510.04-0.03-0.23
0.61-0.0452.50.08930.05-0.04-0.41
0.39-0.04550.08360.05-0.04-0.61
0.23-0.0357.50.06120.04-0.03-0.77
0.13-0.02600.04020.03-0.02-0.87
0.05-0.01650.01640.01-0.01-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 14 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot22.537.552.567.582.51054K0
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

spot203550658010020K20K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 24K call contracts, 40K 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: LW workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk