Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 28, 11:42 PM ET

MDT max pain

Spot (delayed)$94.78
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$90-5.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$5.12±5.4% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.7117K puts / 24K calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$92.5largest put OI
IV3026.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$6.3Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $94

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, Oct 30$94-0.8%1d
Fri, Nov 6$95+0.2%8d
Fri, Nov 13$92-2.9%15d
Fri, Nov 20$90-5.0%22d
Fri, Nov 27$94-0.8%29d
Fri, Dec 4$93-1.9%36d
Fri, Dec 18$90-5.0%50d
Fri, Jan 15$90-5.0%78d
Fri, Feb 19$92.5-2.4%113d
Fri, Mar 19$87.5-7.7%141d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot9050668298114130$84M$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 — 90 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot9050758792.5981105K5K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MDT 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

spot9050758792.5981104K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot65789110411713093%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 26.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 9450758792.598110+$2.2M−$2.2M
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
0.83-0.04890.03680.06-0.04-0.17
0.79-0.04900.04250.07-0.04-0.21
0.75-0.04910.04790.08-0.05-0.25
0.70-0.05920.05290.08-0.05-0.31
0.67-0.0592.50.05510.09-0.05-0.33
0.64-0.05930.05710.09-0.05-0.36
0.58-0.06940.06020.09-0.06-0.42
0.52-0.06950.06180.10-0.06-0.48
0.46-0.06960.06180.10-0.06-0.55
0.40-0.05970.06020.09-0.06-0.61
0.37-0.0597.50.05900.09-0.05-0.64
0.34-0.05980.05740.09-0.05-0.67
0.29-0.05990.05350.08-0.05-0.72
0.24-0.041000.04880.07-0.04-0.77
0.20-0.041010.04350.07-0.04-0.82

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 40 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot558088941001109300
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

spot37.57082909811519K19K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 112K call contracts, 85K 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: MDT workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk