Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 28, 2:49 PM ET

NTAP max pain

Spot (delayed)$227.21
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$200-12.0% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$62.8±27.6% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.421K puts / 3K calls
Call wall$300largest call OI
Put wall$210largest put OI
IV3054.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$513Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $240

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$200-12.0%23d
Fri, Dec 18$195-14.2%51d
Fri, Jan 15$145-36.2%79d
Fri, Mar 19$200-12.0%142d
Thu, Jun 17$200-12.0%232d
Fri, Sep 17$240+5.6%324d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot20050110170230290350$31M$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 — 200 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot20050951301652002701K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NTAP 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

spot200509513016520027011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot50110170230290350131%55%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 55.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spotflip 24060100135170210280+$285K−$285K
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
0.81-0.061800.00340.38-0.07-0.19
0.79-0.071850.00360.41-0.08-0.21
0.77-0.071900.00380.43-0.08-0.24
0.74-0.081950.00400.46-0.09-0.26
0.72-0.082000.00420.48-0.09-0.28
0.67-0.092100.00450.51-0.10-0.33
0.62-0.102200.00480.54-0.10-0.38
0.57-0.102300.00490.56-0.10-0.43
0.53-0.102400.00500.56-0.10-0.48
0.48-0.102500.00500.56-0.10-0.53
0.44-0.102600.00500.56-0.10-0.58
0.39-0.102700.00490.55-0.10-0.62
0.35-0.102800.00470.53-0.09-0.66
0.32-0.102900.00450.51-0.08-0.70
0.28-0.093000.00430.48-0.08-0.73

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 42 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot40801201602002803K0
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

spot40851301752403303K3K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 27K call contracts, 21K 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: NTAP workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk