Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 14, 5:04 PM ET

MKC max pain

Spot (delayed)$44.83
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$50+11.5% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$7.05±15.7% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.872K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$60largest call OI
Put wall$45largest put OI
IV3029.1%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$9Kper 1% move

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, Oct 16$45+0.4%2d
Fri, Nov 20$50+11.5%37d
Fri, Dec 18$50+11.5%65d
Fri, Jan 15$50+11.5%93d
Fri, Mar 19$50+11.5%156d
Thu, Jun 17$50+11.5%246d
Fri, Sep 17$55+22.7%338d
Fri, Jan 21$50+11.5%464d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot503045607590105$10M$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, Mar 19

spot503045607590660660
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MKC open contracts per strike for Fri, Mar 19.

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, Mar 19

spot50304560759033
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot304560759010564%29%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 30.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot3045607590+$41K−$41K
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.98—300.00620.02-0.00-0.03
0.91-0.00350.01830.05-0.01-0.10
0.76-0.01400.03520.09-0.01-0.24
0.55-0.01450.04610.12-0.01-0.47
0.34-0.01500.04240.11-0.01-0.69
0.19-0.01550.03060.08-0.01-0.84
0.11-0.01600.01980.06-0.00-0.92
0.06-0.00650.01250.04-0.00-0.97
0.04-0.00700.00800.02-0.01-1.00
0.02-0.00750.00520.02-0.01-1.00
0.01-0.00800.00350.01-0.01-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. 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