Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 13, 3:22 AM ET

ODFL max pain

Spot (delayed)$181.91
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$185+1.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$25.4±14.0% by Fri, Jan 15
Put/Call OI0.18568 puts / 3K calls
Call wall$240largest call OI
Put wall$190largest put OI
IV3036.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$706Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $185

Event risk before this expiration: CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · 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$180-1.0%3d
Fri, Nov 20$175-3.8%38d
Fri, Dec 18$200+9.9%66d
Fri, Jan 15$185+1.7%94d
Fri, Apr 16$185+1.7%185d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot185125174223272321370$49M$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 — 185 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot185125150175200250300674674
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ODFL open contracts per strike for Fri, Jan 15.

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, Jan 15

spot1851251501752002503002525
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot12517422327232137066%31%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 34.2% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spotflip 185125150175200250300+$127K−$127K
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, Jan 15

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.90-0.031450.00480.16-0.03-0.10
0.88-0.031500.00580.19-0.04-0.13
0.84-0.041550.00700.23-0.04-0.16
0.80-0.041600.00830.26-0.05-0.20
0.76-0.051650.00960.29-0.05-0.25
0.70-0.061700.01070.32-0.06-0.30
0.65-0.061750.01180.34-0.06-0.36
0.59-0.061800.01260.36-0.06-0.42
0.52-0.061850.01300.37-0.06-0.49
0.46-0.061900.01310.37-0.06-0.56
0.40-0.061950.01280.36-0.06-0.62
0.34-0.062000.01220.34-0.06-0.68
0.24-0.052100.01040.29-0.05-0.79
0.16-0.042200.00810.23-0.04-0.88
0.10-0.032300.00600.17-0.03-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 30 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot701151501852403105680
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

spot65105145185250330992992
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 7K 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: ODFL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk