Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 14, 5:53 PM ET

OKE max pain

Spot (delayed)$92.28
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$85-7.9% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13.65±14.8% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.522K puts / 4K calls
Call wall$100largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3030.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$330Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $100

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, Oct 16$90-2.5%2d
Fri, Nov 20$90-2.5%37d
Fri, Dec 18$90-2.5%65d
Fri, Jan 15$80-13.3%93d
Fri, Mar 19$85-7.9%156d
Fri, Apr 16$85-7.9%184d
Thu, Jun 17$85-7.9%246d
Fri, Sep 17$85-7.9%338d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot85506886104122140$15M$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 — 85 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot85507090110130909909
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)OKE 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

spot85507090110130200200
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot50688610412214050%27%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 28.5% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spotflip 100507090110130+$148K−$148K
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
1.00—550.00060.00-0.00-0.02
0.99—600.00200.01-0.01-0.04
0.97-0.00650.00490.04-0.01-0.06
0.94-0.01700.00860.07-0.01-0.09
0.88-0.01750.01230.12-0.01-0.14
0.80-0.01800.01640.16-0.02-0.22
0.70-0.02850.02070.20-0.02-0.31
0.59-0.02900.02350.23-0.02-0.43
0.47-0.02950.02410.23-0.02-0.54
0.36-0.021000.02260.22-0.02-0.65
0.27-0.021050.01970.20-0.01-0.74
0.20-0.011100.01630.17-0.01-0.82
0.14-0.011150.01300.13-0.01-0.87
0.10-0.011200.01010.11-0.01-0.92
0.07-0.011250.00770.08-0.00-0.95

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 19 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot50759010512013513K0
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

spot35608510013016017K17K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 83K call contracts, 27K 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: OKE workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk