Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 14, 3:03 PM ET

MKC max pain

Spot (delayed)$44.69
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$45+0.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.05±2.3% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.433K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$50largest call OI
Put wall$45largest put OI
IV3029.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$348Kper 1% move

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 16$45+0.7%2d
Fri, Nov 20$50+11.9%37d
Fri, Dec 18$50+11.9%65d
Fri, Jan 15$50+11.9%93d
Fri, Mar 19$50+11.9%156d
Thu, Jun 17$50+11.9%246d
Fri, Sep 17$55+23.1%338d
Fri, Jan 21$50+11.9%464d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot45304050607080$18M$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 — 45 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot453040506070803K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MKC open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 16.

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, Oct 16

spot453040506070804040
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot353943475155146%36%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 36.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot304050607080+$531K−$531K
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, Oct 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.00300.00120.00-0.01-0.00
0.99-0.01350.00470.00-0.01-0.01
0.96-0.03400.02780.00-0.03-0.04
0.42-0.12450.31430.01-0.13-0.59
0.04-0.04500.03000.00-0.03-0.97
0.01-0.02550.00830.00-0.02-0.99
0.01-0.01600.00360.00-0.01-0.99
0.00-0.01650.00200.00-0.01-1.00
0.00-0.01700.00120.00-0.01-1.00
0.00-0.00750.00080.00-0.01-1.00
0.00-0.00800.00060.00-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot355065801005K0
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

spot22.54060801001208K8K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 26K call contracts, 19K 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: MKC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk