Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Nov 6, 7:20 PM ET

NRG max pain

Spot (delayed)$88.29
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe delayed quote, underlying price
Fieldcurrent_price
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 6, 7:20 PM ET
HowAbout 15 minutes delayed.
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Max pain · Fri, Dec 11Not showntoo thin to read
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$12.95
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourceAt-the-money straddle midpoint
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 6, 7:20 PM ET
HowCall midpoint plus put midpoint at the strike nearest spot for the 2026-12-11 expiration = 12.95 USD, 14.7% of 88.29 spot.
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±14.7% by Fri, Dec 11
Put/Call OI1.61
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INFERENCE — derived by arithmetic
SourcePut open interest divided by call open interest
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 6, 7:20 PM ET
How37 put contracts / 23 call contracts = 1.61 for the 2026-12-11 expiration. Open interest is published once a day, before the open, so it describes the previous session.
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37 puts / 23 calls
IV3062.0%
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EVIDENCE — filed/published fact
SourceCboe 30-day implied volatility for the underlying
Fieldiv30
As ofCboe delayed snapshot Nov 6, 7:20 PM ET
HowAs Cboe publishes it; not computed by us.
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30-day implied vol

Too thin to read: 60 open contracts across 14 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Event risk before this expiration: 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 13$95+7.6%6d
Fri, Nov 20$95+7.6%13d
Fri, Nov 27$93+5.3%20d
Fri, Dec 4$88-0.3%27d
Fri, Dec 11too thin34d
Fri, Dec 18$110+24.6%41d
Fri, Jan 15$110+24.6%69d
Fri, Mar 19one strike decides132d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

Too thin to read: 60 open contracts across 14 strikes. Max pain, walls and gamma print from 100 contracts across 5 strikes.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 11

spot7077801041201010
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NRG open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 11.

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, Dec 11

spot7479859510544
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 11

spot70839610912213596%52%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 59.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Dec 11

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.88-0.06700.01030.06-0.06-0.12
0.83-0.07740.01360.07-0.07-0.17
0.81-0.07750.01450.07-0.07-0.19
0.78-0.08770.01630.08-0.08-0.22
0.76-0.08780.01720.08-0.08-0.24
0.74-0.08790.01800.09-0.08-0.26
0.72-0.08800.01890.09-0.08-0.27
0.62-0.09850.02240.10-0.09-0.38
0.39-0.09950.02320.10-0.09-0.61
0.22-0.071040.01790.08-0.07-0.78
0.15-0.061100.01360.06-0.06-0.85
0.10-0.041150.01060.05-0.04-0.90
0.08-0.041200.00810.04-0.04-0.93
0.03-0.021350.00360.02-0.02-0.98

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

spot5584931021111206K0
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

spot40809611014520041K41K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 121K call contracts, 76K 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.

Max pain, walls and gamma print only when an expiration holds at least 100 open contracts across 5 strikes, and max pain also needs to stay within 5% of spot when its single heaviest strike is removed. Below that the expiration reads as thin rather than printing a level one trade could move.

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: NRG workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk