Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Sep 19, 11:47 PM ET

MA max pain

Spot (delayed)$565.24
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$555-1.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$44.05±7.8% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.927K puts / 7K calls
Call wall$600largest call OI
Put wall$520largest put OI
IV3019.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4.4Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $600
Earnings · expectedThu, Oct 29usually after the close

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · 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, Sep 25$575+1.7%6d
Fri, Oct 2$580+2.6%13d
Fri, Oct 9$585+3.5%20d
Fri, Oct 16$565-0.0%27d
Fri, Oct 23$575+1.7%34d
Fri, Oct 30$575+1.7%41d← 1st expiry after earnings (Thu, Oct 29)
Fri, Nov 20$555-1.8%62d
Fri, Dec 18$540-4.5%90d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot555310388466544622700$121M$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 — 555 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot5553104304805305806301K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MA 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

spot555310430480530580630136136
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot35042049056063070057%20%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 23.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 600350435485535585635+$2.4M$2.4M
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
0.77-0.145300.00530.71-0.14-0.23
0.74-0.145350.00570.76-0.15-0.26
0.71-0.155400.00600.80-0.15-0.29
0.68-0.165450.00640.84-0.16-0.32
0.65-0.165500.00670.87-0.17-0.36
0.62-0.175550.00700.90-0.17-0.39
0.58-0.175600.00720.92-0.17-0.43
0.55-0.175650.00730.93-0.18-0.47
0.51-0.175700.00740.94-0.18-0.51
0.47-0.175750.00740.93-0.18-0.54
0.43-0.175800.00740.92-0.17-0.58
0.40-0.165850.00730.91-0.17-0.62
0.36-0.165900.00710.88-0.17-0.66
0.33-0.155950.00680.85-0.16-0.69
0.30-0.146000.00660.82-0.15-0.72

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

spot470535565587.56106452120
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

spot2403904705356006805K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 61K call contracts, 60K 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: MA workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk