Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Oct 24, 6:25 AM ET

PANW max pain

Spot (delayed)$382
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$350-8.4% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$52.73±13.8% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.7925K puts / 31K calls
Call wall$450largest call OI
Put wall$320largest put OI
IV3063.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$4.5Mper 1% move · flip ≈ $450

Event risk before this expiration: FOMC decision Wed, Oct 28 · Jobs report Fri, Nov 6 · CPI release Tue, Nov 10 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Oct 30$372.5-2.5%6d
Fri, Nov 6$375-1.8%13d
Fri, Nov 13$370-3.1%20d
Fri, Nov 20$350-8.4%27d
Fri, Nov 27$405+6.0%34d
Fri, Dec 4$355-7.1%41d
Fri, Dec 18$260-31.9%55d
Fri, Jan 15$250-34.6%83d
Fri, Mar 19$310-18.8%146d
Fri, Apr 16$340-11.0%174d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot3505156307458609760$1.1B$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 — 350 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot35051702403304205204K4K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PANW open contracts per strike for Fri, Nov 20.

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, Nov 20

spot3505170240330420520989989
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot125252379506633760213%52%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 62.7% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 450130185270352.5450550+$2.5M−$2.5M
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, Nov 20

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.85-0.303200.00330.25-0.30-0.15
0.81-0.343300.00380.29-0.34-0.19
0.76-0.393400.00440.33-0.39-0.24
0.71-0.423500.00490.36-0.42-0.29
0.70-0.43352.50.00500.37-0.43-0.30
0.66-0.453600.00530.39-0.45-0.34
0.60-0.473700.00560.41-0.47-0.40
0.55-0.483800.00580.42-0.49-0.46
0.49-0.483900.00590.42-0.49-0.51
0.43-0.474000.00580.41-0.48-0.57
0.38-0.454100.00560.40-0.46-0.63
0.33-0.434200.00540.38-0.43-0.68
0.28-0.404300.00500.35-0.40-0.73
0.23-0.364400.00460.32-0.37-0.77
0.20-0.334500.00420.29-0.33-0.81

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

spot1603053553854355104K0
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

spot514522030038052018K18K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 291K call contracts, 292K 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: PANW workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · iron condor and credit spread calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk