Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 21, 10:36 AM ET

NU max pain

Spot (delayed)$15.13
Max pain · Fri, Oct 30$14.5-4.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.76±11.6% by Fri, Oct 30
Put/Call OI1.1346K puts / 40K calls
Call wall$15largest call OI
Put wall$14largest put OI
IV3061.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$295Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $10

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 23$15-0.9%2d
Fri, Oct 30$14.5-4.2%9d
Fri, Nov 6$14-7.5%16d
Fri, Nov 13$14.5-4.2%23d
Fri, Nov 20$14-7.5%30d
Fri, Nov 27$14.5-4.2%37d
Fri, Dec 18$14-7.5%58d
Fri, Jan 15$15-0.9%86d
Fri, Mar 19$13-14.1%149d
Fri, Apr 16$14-7.5%177d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot14.551015192429$54M$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 — 14.5 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot14.551012.51517.52910K10K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)NU open contracts per strike for Fri, Oct 30.

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, Oct 30

spot14.551012.51517.5296K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spot51015192429290%64%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 87.9% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Oct 30

spotflip 1071012141618+$273K−$273K
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, Oct 30

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.94-0.0111.50.04110.00-0.01-0.06
0.92-0.02120.05610.00-0.02-0.08
0.89-0.0212.50.07490.01-0.02-0.11
0.85-0.03130.09720.01-0.03-0.16
0.79-0.0313.50.12200.01-0.03-0.21
0.72-0.04140.14760.01-0.04-0.28
0.64-0.0414.50.17070.01-0.04-0.36
0.55-0.04150.18740.01-0.04-0.45
0.46-0.0415.50.19410.01-0.04-0.55
0.36-0.04160.18850.01-0.04-0.64
0.27-0.0316.50.17110.01-0.03-0.73
0.20-0.03170.14520.01-0.03-0.81
0.14-0.0217.50.11590.01-0.02-0.87
0.09-0.01180.08760.00-0.01-0.92
0.06-0.0118.50.06340.00-0.01-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 26 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot59.51214.51719.549K0
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

spot1812162027200K200K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1.4M call contracts, 785K 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: NU workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk