Event risk before this expiration:CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · 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.
■ 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 — 146 — is the max pain price.
Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 27
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)MRK open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 27.
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 27
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).
Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 27
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 34.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.
Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 27
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 27
Call Δ
Call Θ
Strike
Γ
Vega
Put Θ
Put Δ
0.76
-0.06
135
0.0174
0.16
-0.06
-0.24
0.55
-0.07
145
0.0226
0.20
-0.07
-0.45
0.53
-0.07
146
0.0228
0.20
-0.08
-0.48
0.48
-0.07
148
0.0229
0.21
-0.07
-0.52
0.46
-0.07
149
0.0228
0.20
-0.07
-0.55
0.44
-0.07
150
0.0227
0.20
-0.07
-0.57
0.38
-0.07
152.5
0.0220
0.20
-0.07
-0.62
0.33
-0.07
155
0.0210
0.19
-0.07
-0.68
0.24
-0.06
160
0.0180
0.16
-0.06
-0.77
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
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.
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.