Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 14, 10:24 AM ET

NOC max pain

Spot (delayed)$484.61
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$520+7.3% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$72.55±15.0% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI1.081K puts / 1K calls
Call wall$640largest call OI
Put wall$400largest put OI
IV3029.9%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$346Kper 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 16$500+3.2%2d
Fri, Nov 20$515+6.3%37d
Fri, Dec 18$530+9.4%65d
Fri, Jan 15$530+9.4%93d
Fri, Feb 19$515+6.3%128d
Fri, Mar 19$520+7.3%156d
Fri, May 21$490+1.1%219d
Thu, Jun 17$500+3.2%246d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot5203104606107609101060$52M$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 — 520 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot520310400490580720900338338
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NOC 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

spot520310400490580720900123123
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot310460610760910106058%26%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot310400480560660820+$189K−$189K
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, Mar 19

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.84-0.064100.00260.78-0.08-0.17
0.81-0.074200.00290.87-0.08-0.20
0.77-0.074300.00320.95-0.09-0.24
0.74-0.084400.00361.02-0.10-0.27
0.70-0.094500.00381.09-0.10-0.31
0.66-0.104600.00401.15-0.10-0.35
0.62-0.104700.00421.20-0.11-0.40
0.57-0.104800.00441.23-0.11-0.44
0.53-0.114900.00441.25-0.11-0.49
0.49-0.115000.00441.25-0.11-0.53
0.44-0.115100.00441.24-0.11-0.57
0.40-0.105200.00431.21-0.10-0.62
0.36-0.105300.00421.18-0.10-0.66
0.33-0.105400.00401.13-0.09-0.70
0.29-0.105500.00381.08-0.09-0.73

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 50 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot3004254905556206906520
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

spot2904204855456207202K2K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 16K call contracts, 17K 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: NOC workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk