Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 30, 10:22 PM ET

MPLX max pain

Spot (delayed)$60.5
Max pain · Fri, Jan 21$50-17.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$9.38±15.5% by Fri, Jan 21
Put/Call OI0.342K puts / 6K calls
Call wall$55largest call OI
Put wall$55largest put OI
IV3016.7%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$540Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $50

Event risk before this expiration: 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, Nov 20$60-0.8%20d
Fri, Dec 18$60-0.8%48d
Fri, Jan 15$55-9.1%76d
Fri, Mar 19$55-9.1%139d
Thu, Jun 17$57.5-5.0%229d
Fri, Jan 21$50-17.4%447d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot50253545556575$11M$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, Jan 21

spot5025405060752K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MPLX open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 21.

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, Jan 21

spot5025405060755050
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spot25354555657569%15%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 18.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 21

spotflip 502540506075+$174K−$174K
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, Jan 21

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
1.00-0.09350.00620.08-0.00-0.06
1.00-0.07400.01010.10-0.00-0.10
1.00-0.05450.01610.14-0.00-0.15
0.98-0.0347.50.01620.16-0.00-0.19
0.91-0.01500.04170.07-0.00-0.24
0.81-0.0052.50.03860.15-0.00-0.30
0.71-0.01550.04010.20-0.00-0.38
0.50-0.01600.04390.24-0.00-0.57
0.31-0.00650.03680.21-0.00-0.73
0.19-0.00700.02680.17-0.00-0.84
0.12-0.00750.01870.130.00-0.90

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 11 strikes around the money — all 13 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot25354557.57021K0
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

spot2333425062.58024K24K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 61K call contracts, 35K 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: MPLX workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk