Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 13, 3:11 AM ET

MOS max pain

Spot (delayed)$18.9
Max pain · Fri, Oct 16$22+16.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$0.73±3.8% by Fri, Oct 16
Put/Call OI0.4311K puts / 25K calls
Call wall$25largest call OI
Put wall$22largest put OI
IV3052.2%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$496Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $15

Event risk before this expiration: CPI release Wed, Oct 14 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 16$22+16.4%3d
Fri, Oct 23$22+16.4%10d
Fri, Oct 30$22+16.4%17d
Fri, Nov 6$20.5+8.5%24d
Fri, Nov 13$22+16.4%31d
Fri, Nov 20$23+21.7%38d
Fri, Nov 27$20+5.8%45d
Fri, Dec 18$24+27.0%66d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot22131721263034$23M$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 — 22 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot221318.521.524.527.530.57K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MOS 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

spot221318.521.524.527.530.51K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spot151820232528180%41%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 45.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 16

spotflip 151418.52123.52628.5+$213K−$213K
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—130.0002——0.00
1.00—140.0009—0.000.00
1.000.00150.00380.00-0.00-0.00
0.99-0.00160.01650.00-0.00-0.01
0.96-0.01170.07320.00-0.01-0.04
0.82-0.03180.27120.01-0.03-0.17
0.66-0.0418.50.40610.01-0.04-0.34
0.44-0.05190.44400.01-0.05-0.56
0.25-0.0419.50.34800.01-0.04-0.76
0.13-0.02200.21680.00-0.02-0.88
0.06-0.0120.50.12130.00-0.01-0.94
0.03-0.01210.06590.00-0.01-0.97
0.02-0.0021.50.03600.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.00220.02020.00-0.00-0.99
0.01-0.0022.50.01160.00-0.00-1.00

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 35 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1319222528318K0
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

spot1017.52226.53137.541K41K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 230K call contracts, 157K 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: MOS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk