Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 3:10 AM ET

LYEL max pain

Spot (delayed)$9.39
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$12+27.8% vs spot
Put/Call OI0.90297 puts / 330 calls
Call wall$21largest call OI
Put wall$11largest put OI
IV30133.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$310per 1% move · flip ≈ $10

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, Nov 20$9-4.2%25d
Fri, Jan 15$12+27.8%81d
Fri, Apr 16$7-25.5%172d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1251015202530$1M$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 — 12 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot1251114192225134134
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LYEL 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

spot125111419222511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot91317222630293%79%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 141.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 1051114192225+$541−$541
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
0.90-0.0150.02410.01-0.01-0.12
0.68-0.0190.06130.02-0.01-0.34
0.61-0.01100.06690.02-0.01-0.41
0.55-0.01110.06980.02-0.01-0.47
0.49-0.01120.07030.02-0.01-0.53
0.44-0.01130.06910.02-0.01-0.58
0.40-0.01140.06680.02-0.01-0.63
0.36-0.01150.06400.02-0.01-0.67
0.27-0.01180.05440.01-0.01-0.77

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 9 strikes around the money — all 18 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot510151923303100
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

spot16111621261K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 870 call contracts, 2K 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: LYEL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk