Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 25, 2:28 AM ET

ORR max pain

Spot (delayed)$38.7
Max pain · Fri, Jan 15$20-48.3% vs spot
Put/Call OI0.0120 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$35largest call OI
Put wall$20largest put OI
IV3020.0%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$152Kper 1% move

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$38-1.8%26d
Fri, Dec 18$37-4.4%54d
Fri, Jan 15$20-48.3%82d
Fri, Mar 19$35-9.6%145d
Thu, Jun 17$35-9.6%235d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot20202530354045$1M$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 — 20 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot202035373941777777
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)ORR 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

spot20203537394111
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot20253035404575%19%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 19.8% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Jan 15

spot2035373941+$62K−$62K
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
0.95-0.01200.00640.02-0.01-0.05
0.80-0.01340.04440.05-0.01-0.20
0.76-0.01350.05360.06-0.01-0.24
0.72-0.01360.06500.06-0.01-0.28
0.66-0.01370.07880.07-0.01-0.34
0.58-0.01380.09260.07-0.01-0.42
0.48-0.01390.09980.07-0.01-0.51
0.39-0.01400.09490.07-0.01-0.60
0.31-0.01410.08260.07-0.01-0.68
0.17-0.01450.04340.05-0.01-0.82

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot20353739417770
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

spot202530354045789789
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 2K call contracts, 193 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: ORR workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk