Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 7:58 PM ET

NTES max pain

Spot (delayed)$118.11
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$125+5.8% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13.05±11.0% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI1.372K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$125largest call OI
Put wall$95largest put OI
IV3039.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$204Kper 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, Nov 20$125+5.8%25d
Fri, Dec 18$125+5.8%53d
Fri, Jan 15$110-6.9%81d
Fri, Mar 19$120+1.6%144d
Thu, Jun 17$125+5.8%234d
Fri, Sep 17$120+1.6%326d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1256090120150180210$10M$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 — 125 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot1256095120145170195593593
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NTES open contracts per strike for Fri, Dec 18.

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 18

spot125609512014517019588
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot6090120150180210100%35%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 35.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot6095120145170195+$166K−$166K
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, Dec 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.96-0.01850.00360.04-0.02-0.04
0.94-0.02900.00530.05-0.03-0.06
0.91-0.03950.00780.07-0.03-0.09
0.87-0.041000.01110.09-0.04-0.14
0.81-0.051050.01520.12-0.05-0.20
0.72-0.061100.01960.15-0.06-0.29
0.61-0.061150.02310.17-0.06-0.39
0.49-0.061200.02450.18-0.06-0.51
0.38-0.061250.02330.17-0.06-0.63
0.28-0.051300.02030.15-0.05-0.73
0.20-0.041350.01670.13-0.04-0.80
0.15-0.041400.01320.10-0.03-0.86
0.11-0.031450.01030.08-0.03-0.90
0.08-0.031500.00790.07-0.02-0.93
0.06-0.021550.00610.05-0.02-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 28 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot40801101401702007320
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

spot4070100130160190968968
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 5K call contracts, 5K 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: NTES workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk