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

LW max pain

Spot (delayed)$53.78
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$47.5-11.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$8.3±15.4% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.7611K puts / 15K calls
Call wall$65largest call OI
Put wall$40largest put OI
IV3035.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$686Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $50

Event risk before this expiration: 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$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

spot47.523426281101120$94M$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, Jan 15

spot47.522.537.552.567.582.51054K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LW open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot47.522.537.552.567.582.510566
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot23426281101120109%37%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 40.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 5022.537.552.567.582.5105+$336K−$336K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.95-0.0137.50.00900.03-0.01-0.05
0.92-0.01400.01220.04-0.01-0.08
0.88-0.0142.50.01670.05-0.01-0.12
0.83-0.02450.02240.06-0.02-0.17
0.77-0.0247.50.02860.08-0.02-0.23
0.69-0.02500.03420.09-0.02-0.32
0.59-0.0252.50.03810.10-0.03-0.41
0.49-0.03550.03950.10-0.03-0.51
0.40-0.0257.50.03830.10-0.03-0.61
0.32-0.02600.03520.09-0.02-0.69
0.25-0.0262.50.03100.08-0.02-0.77
0.19-0.02650.02640.07-0.02-0.83
0.15-0.0167.50.02200.06-0.01-0.87
0.12-0.01700.01810.05-0.01-0.91
0.09-0.0172.50.01470.04-0.01-0.94

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 34 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