Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 12, 12:38 PM ET

ORCL max pain

Spot (delayed)$140.73
Max pain · Fri, Dec 18$155+10.1% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$28.22±20.1% by Fri, Dec 18
Put/Call OI0.84223K puts / 267K calls
Call wall$250largest call OI
Put wall$150largest put OI
IV3053.3%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$8.5Mper 1% move
Earnings · expectedWed, Dec 9usually after the close

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$145+3.0%4d
Fri, Oct 23$140-0.5%11d
Fri, Oct 30$140-0.5%18d
Fri, Nov 6$137-2.7%25d
Fri, Nov 13$145+3.0%32d
Fri, Nov 20$150+6.6%39d
Fri, Nov 27$135-4.1%46d
Fri, Dec 18$155+10.1%67d← 1st expiry after earnings (Wed, Dec 9)

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot15560150240330420510$7.1B$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 — 155 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot1556011016022032042038K38K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ORCL 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

spot155601101602203204206K6K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot60150240330420510106%57%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 57.3% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Dec 18

spot60110160220320420+$3.1M−$3.1M
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
0.91-0.041050.00460.10-0.04-0.09
0.87-0.051100.00570.13-0.05-0.13
0.84-0.061150.00690.15-0.06-0.17
0.79-0.071200.00810.18-0.07-0.21
0.74-0.081250.00910.20-0.08-0.26
0.69-0.091300.01000.22-0.09-0.31
0.64-0.101350.01060.23-0.10-0.37
0.58-0.101400.01100.24-0.10-0.42
0.53-0.101450.01120.25-0.10-0.48
0.47-0.101500.01120.25-0.10-0.54
0.42-0.101550.01090.24-0.10-0.59
0.37-0.101600.01050.23-0.10-0.63
0.33-0.091650.01000.23-0.10-0.68
0.29-0.091700.00940.21-0.09-0.72
0.26-0.081750.00880.20-0.09-0.76

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 15 strikes around the money — all 60 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot80127139152.5182.524074K0
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

spot60105145190270360142K142K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 1.9M call contracts, 1.6M 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: ORCL workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk