Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 10, 6:25 PM ET

MN max pain

Spot (delayed)$20.71
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 6:25 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Mar 19Not showntoo thin to read
Put/Call OI0.22
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 6:25 PM ET
How11 put contracts / 51 call contracts = 0.22 for the 2027-03-19 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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11 puts / 51 calls
IV3051.9%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 10, 6:25 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 62 open contracts across 9 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Nov 20too thin10d
Fri, Dec 18too thin38d
Fri, Mar 19too thin129d
Thu, Jun 17$18-13.1%219d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 62 open contracts across 9 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot18222528302020
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MN 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

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot18202325283067%21%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 29.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.78-0.01180.05340.04-0.01-0.24
0.66-0.01200.07820.05-0.01-0.37
0.49-0.01220.08730.05-0.01-0.55
0.42-0.01230.08150.05-0.01-0.62
0.32-0.01250.06550.04-0.01-0.72
0.26-0.01270.05270.04-0.01-0.79
0.24-0.01280.04780.04-0.01-0.81
0.23-0.01290.04360.04-0.01-0.82
0.21-0.01300.04020.04-0.01-0.84

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

spot2023252729320
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

spot1620242832100100
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 213 call contracts, 25 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.

Max pain, walls and gamma print only when an expiration holds at least 100 open contracts across 5 strikes, and max pain also needs to stay within 5% of spot when its single heaviest strike is removed. Below that the expiration reads as thin rather than printing a level one trade could move.

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: MN workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk