Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 22, 12:53 AM ET

NLY max pain

Spot (delayed)$18.02
Max pain · Fri, Apr 16$20+11.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$2.75±15.3% by Fri, Apr 16
Put/Call OI1.668K puts / 5K calls
Call wall$20largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3025.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$75Kper 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 23$18-0.1%2d
Fri, Oct 30$18.5+2.7%9d
Fri, Nov 6$18-0.1%16d
Fri, Nov 13$18.5+2.7%23d
Fri, Nov 20$19+5.4%30d
Fri, Nov 27$18.5+2.7%37d
Fri, Dec 18$19+5.4%58d
Fri, Jan 15$21+16.5%86d
Fri, Apr 16$20+11.0%177d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot20131619212427$5M$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Apr 16

spot2013161922252K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NLY open contracts per strike for Fri, Apr 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, Apr 16

spot2013161922251010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Apr 16

spot13161921242753%18%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 24.4% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Apr 16

spot1316192225+$26K−$26K
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, Apr 16

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.99—130.01230.00-0.00-0.11
0.970.00140.02910.01-0.00-0.16
0.93-0.00150.06050.01-0.00-0.24
0.84-0.00160.10770.02-0.00-0.35
0.71-0.00170.15410.04-0.00-0.48
0.54-0.00180.17290.04-0.00-0.61
0.38-0.00190.15670.04-0.00-0.73
0.25-0.00200.12400.04-0.00-0.82
0.17-0.00210.09160.03-0.00-0.88
0.11-0.00220.06590.020.00-0.92
0.07-0.00230.04700.02—-0.95
0.05-0.00240.03340.01—-0.96
0.03-0.00250.02390.01—-0.98

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 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

spot13171921232817K0
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

spot31216.520.524.528.524K24K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 91K call contracts, 97K 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: NLY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk