Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 19, 2:02 PM ET

PDFS max pain

Spot (delayed)$46.82
Max pain · Fri, Nov 20$40-14.6% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$14.15±30.2% by Fri, Nov 20
Put/Call OI0.0470 puts / 2K calls
Call wall$75largest call OI
Put wall$30largest put OI
IV3076.8%30-day implied vol
Net GEX+$52Kper 1% move · flip ≈ $22.5

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 · Jobs report Fri, Oct 2 · CPI release Wed, Oct 14 · 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, Aug 21$40-14.6%2d
Fri, Sep 18$50+6.8%30d
Fri, Nov 20$40-14.6%93d
Fri, Feb 19$30-35.9%184d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot40183349648095$4M$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 — 40 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot4017.5355065801K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)PDFS 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

spot4017.53550658011
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spot183349648095111%68%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 75.6% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Nov 20

spotflip 22.517.535506580+$32K$32K
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
0.99-0.0017.50.00130.01-0.00-0.01
0.98-0.0122.50.00310.02-0.01-0.03
0.92-0.01300.00840.04-0.02-0.09
0.84-0.02350.01320.06-0.03-0.16
0.75-0.03400.01760.08-0.03-0.26
0.64-0.04450.02060.09-0.04-0.37
0.54-0.04500.02190.10-0.04-0.47
0.44-0.04550.02160.09-0.04-0.57
0.36-0.04600.02020.09-0.04-0.66
0.29-0.03650.01830.08-0.03-0.73
0.23-0.03700.01610.07-0.03-0.80
0.18-0.03750.01400.06-0.03-0.85
0.15-0.02800.01200.06-0.02-0.89

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 15 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot1530456075901K0
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

spot15254565851K1K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 3K call contracts, 596 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: PDFS workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk