Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 14, 4:07 PM ET

MKC max pain

Spot (delayed)$44.97
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$50+11.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$3.25±7.2% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI2.443K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$50largest call OI
Put wall$50largest put OI
IV3029.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$231Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Oct 16$45+0.1%2d
Fri, Nov 20$50+11.2%37d
Fri, Dec 18$50+11.2%65d
Fri, Jan 15$50+11.2%93d
Fri, Mar 19$50+11.2%156d
Thu, Jun 17$50+11.2%246d
Fri, Sep 17$55+22.3%338d
Fri, Jan 21$50+11.2%464d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot50303846546270$5M$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 — 50 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot5030405060702K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MKC 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

spot5030405060704848
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot30384654627079%23%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot3040506070+$159K−$159K
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
0.99-0.00300.00280.00-0.00-0.01
0.97-0.01350.01080.01-0.01-0.03
0.88-0.01400.04130.03-0.01-0.12
0.53-0.02450.09800.06-0.02-0.47
0.16-0.01500.05540.04-0.01-0.86
0.05-0.01550.01960.01-0.01-0.98
0.02-0.00600.00790.01-0.00-1.00
0.01-0.00650.00380.00-0.00-1.00
0.01-0.00700.00200.00-0.00-1.00

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