Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 26, 8:24 PM ET

ORLY max pain

Spot (delayed)$91.05
Max pain · Fri, Mar 19$90-1.2% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$13±14.3% by Fri, Mar 19
Put/Call OI0.901K puts / 2K calls
Call wall$95largest call OI
Put wall$80largest put OI
IV3030.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$69Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $105

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$87.5-3.9%25d
Fri, Dec 18$90-1.2%53d
Fri, Jan 15$90-1.2%81d
Fri, Feb 19$90-1.2%116d
Fri, Mar 19$90-1.2%144d
Fri, May 21$85-6.6%207d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot9045638199117135$5M$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 — 90 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot90456585105125324324
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ORLY 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

spot9045658510512511
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Mar 19

spot4563819911713572%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 105456585105125+$54K−$54K
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
0.970.00550.00200.03-0.00-0.02
0.96-0.00600.00320.04-0.01-0.03
0.94-0.01650.00500.06-0.01-0.05
0.91-0.01700.00770.09-0.01-0.09
0.86-0.01750.01140.12-0.01-0.13
0.80-0.01800.01590.16-0.02-0.20
0.70-0.02850.02060.20-0.02-0.30
0.59-0.02900.02410.22-0.02-0.42
0.47-0.02950.02510.23-0.02-0.55
0.35-0.021000.02350.21-0.02-0.67
0.26-0.021050.02020.19-0.02-0.77
0.19-0.011100.01640.15-0.02-0.85
0.14-0.011150.01290.13-0.01-0.92
0.10-0.011200.01000.10-0.01-0.97
0.07-0.011250.00780.08-0.01-0.99

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

spot4570901051301556K0
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

spot456582.5951151407K7K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 35K call contracts, 14K 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: ORLY workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk